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At Ann Korologos Gallery, the exhibition Free Rein brings together the expansive vision of artist Heather Foster — a painter whose work captures the enduring tension between tended land and untamed spirit, open country and the intimate rhythms of ranch life. Though Foster grew up in Philadelphia and studied art in Baltimore, it was a post-college leap westward — a one-way ticket to San Francisco and a cross-country bicycle journey back to the Atlantic — that first immersed her in the vastness and humanity of the American West. Decades later, that formative experience continues to animate her canvases, where movement, memory, and the unmistakable spirit of the West converge in paint.
Heather Foster: I grew up in Philadelphia and went to art school in Baltimore. I never had the opportunity to travel beyond that small sector. Until – I graduated from college, and two of my roommates and I bought one-way plane tickets to San Francisco. We shipped our bicycles and gear with the plan to bike back to the East Coast. This was the first time I had really traveled and the first time I was on an airplane. We biked along the West Coast and then took a meandering route heading east, across the entire U.S., sticking to small roads, averaging 100 miles a day, and camping out every night. It was just the three of us exploring – an amazing way to see the country!
This trip was my introduction to tended land and wild, open ranges; to ranch life and the spirit of it all … We had free rein! People saw our bikes loaded up and asked us questions. We met ranchers, farmers, a Montana pilot who fought wildfires with his small planes and had an airstrip in his front yard, a minister with a calling to a tiny town that had two bars, one church and no stoplight. All of them (and others) let us camp in their yards, or in the church, fed us, and shared pieces of themselves with us. We biked through incredible landscapes, over mountain passes, past ghost towns, through ranches and herds of cattle, past farms, and along rivers. I saw my first rodeo on the Fourth of July in a small Wyoming town, and I can say seeing bison on the road in Yellowstone is a little different on a bicycle than in a car!
It wasn’t long after I touched my bicycle’s front wheel into the Atlantic Ocean that my boyfriend (now husband) and I bought an old, creepy, used van, ripped out its shag carpeting, packed up our stuff, and moved west, without a specific destination in mind. Our van blew a head gasket going up La Bajada hill into Santa Fe. It wasn’t going anywhere else. Thirty-five years later, here we are.
I’ve visited many ranches over the years since that bike trip, and I am always appreciative that so many people have given me tours and shared their land, knowledge, and animals. The American West and its spirit remain unmatched… how could I not be compelled to paint it?
Heather Foster: I love variety! The large paintings are much more physical and have such a different feel, up close and from a distance. The small pieces happen on a day when I just wanted to sit and finish a thought more quickly, or in one sitting.
6 x 6 inch images by Heather Foster. See available work by the artist here.
Heather Foster: Horses are always majestic and graceful, but I’m often drawn to their quirkiness. I love the noses that are like exploring hands and their silly expressions. I drove past Bishop’s Lodge in Santa Fe several days a week, taking my daughter to her karate lessons. During her classes, I’d often trek back and visit the horses that were corralled, watching cars go by.
In Bishop’s Lodge Friend, this moment exaggerated with a unique perspective – and yet, it’s familiar to anyone who has walked up to a corral or fence with a horse. The large scale of this piece reaffirms his character and presence. Every artist puts a bit of themselves into each painting – maybe there is a reason I tend to celebrate the awkward and quirky!
Any painting is a convergence of an artist’s story, how they translate what appeals to them, and their artistic training. I think the decisions about what underpainting to leave visible and what to refine is mostly artistic training. Color theory and composition lessons that I consider and then have intuitive and learned responses.
Heather Foster: I often listen to audiobooks, sometimes podcasts, when I’m working in my studio. I can’t recall the name of a podcast or title of any specific book, but sometimes a memory imprints on a painting. I look at the painting, and I remember a short scene from a book or a character comes to mind. Memory is peculiar, and paintings can hold memories of a moment, a place or story. As we navigate a family member dealing with dementia, I think about how the mind works and what triggers memories in specific moments.
As always, I am grateful to anyone purchasing a painting- it allows me to focus and continue to create.
