Revisiting John Muir's High Sierra

Tony Foster painted the Journey John Muir’s High Sierra in 1986 as he hiked along the entire 215 miles of the John Muir Trail in the Sierra Nevada, carrying his drawing board, paper, and supplies. The artist’s close observations describe the surrounding landscape and also his experiences traveling slowly and encountering people, objects, and flora and fauna along the way.

This exhibition reunites many of the iconic artworks presented in the first exhibitions of John Muir’s High Sierra in 1987–89, in Edinburgh and London, UK; in San Francisco at the California Academy of Sciences; and in Washington, DC at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. It celebrates the British watercolorist’s deep ties to Northern California which led to a museum dedicated to his art in Palo Alto.

Tony Foster’s art form is a Journey, a series of watercolor paintings with accompanying notes, maps, and symbolic objects or “souvenirs” made with the intention to reveal wild places or explore a specific idea or theme. The theme may have geographic focus or be global in scope; most of his Art Journeys include multiple expeditions and can take years to complete. Foster’s Journey-based art practice explores themes of nature and environmental stewardship and involves painting en plein air in the world’s wild places. Subjects have ranged from mountains and canyons, rainforests and deserts, the Arctic and the tropics, to volcanoes, coral reefs, and iconic natural areas such as the Grand Canyon and Mount Everest. Foster frequently endures harsh weather and challenging travel conditions to reach and document remote sites. His life’s work is motivated by a desire to record and share the wonder he experiences in nature, providing evidence and inspiration to preserve these extraordinary places.

Foster is a gifted artist who has shown his work internationally for decades. His artwork is in the permanent collections of the Yale Center for British Art (New Haven, CT); Cornwall Museum and Art Gallery (Truro, UK); Autry Museum of the American West (Los Angeles, CA); Denver Art Museum (CO); and Phoenix Art Museum (AZ), where his work has been exhibited; he has also had exhibitions at the Royal Watercolour Society (London); Royal Academy of Arts (London); and the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History (Washington, DC), among others. Foster has been honored with the Cherry Kearton Medal and Award from the Royal Geographical Society where he is a Fellow, as well as the Yosemite Renaissance prize.