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Heather Foster has always been interested in drawing and painting. Starting at an early age, Foster took after school art classes at a local community center. Throughout high school, she attended extracurricular art classes at Moore College of Art, the Philadelphia College of Art and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. In 1990 Foster received a BFA from the Maryland Institute, College of Art. Foster worked for several years in the field of painting conservation and restoration where she got to balance research and science with a talented hand. Her paintings depict the spirit of the beings she observes, noting people and animals aren’t all that different. In a recent series, Heather Foster has been exploring and observing the Santa Fe Rodeo grounds, painting works from 6 x 6 inches to larger-than-life 80 inch “Rodeo Queens.” Enjoy this rumination from the artist and her new works below:
“If I went to the Santa Fe rodeo grounds right now, it would be a barren dirt lot. But in a matter of hours when the rodeo event is happening, there are pens full of enormous bulls and horses. There is a bustling community with cowboys and cowgirls and their rigs with RVs and trailers taking their own horses on trips around the west. Dogs are running around but know how to navigate all the bulls and broncos, still occasionally taking a plunge to cool off in their water troughs. I sometimes go in the mornings and watch the routines of road life with all these animals, dogs herding and everyone working to feed the livestock.
Watching the rodeo itself is intense as well, and it always starts out with the rodeo queen on her horse racing full speed around the perimeter of the arena. There is an exhilaration that you feel if you stand near the rails and watch horse and rider thundering by at full speed.
I like to visit the Santa Fe rodeo grounds in the mornings, pens with bulls wondering when breakfast is coming, horses tethered to trailers, waiting for their human partners to wake up inside the RVs after a night of celebrating. It’s quiet before the feedings start and the horses watch me watching them. As I wander past, I think this horse [depicted in Rodeo Queen] knows she’s the queen – she loves the thrill of that sprint around the arena or circling barrels, and she’s just patiently waiting for her human companion while watching me with her powerful strength and beautiful muscles, topped off with tousled hair and long eyelashes.
