Tony Foster: Painting at the Edge review – going deep in the quest for extreme landscape painting

<p>At 79, the British artist is still skirting real peril, questing across the planet to depict the unspoiled vastnesses shown to grand effect here</p><p>Travelling with Tony Foster comes with a disclaimer. According to the terms of the contract signed by the British painter’s prospective companions: “You must have sufficient personal insurance for your body to be flown home in case of fatality.” Or, as he warns beforehand: “There will be times on this journey when you wish you were absolutely anywhere else.” Fortunately, there is an upside to Foster’s deep wilderness expeditions in search of the perfect vantage point for a watercolour. “There will also be times of great joy, when you experience things you never, ever would’ve dreamt of.”</p><p>Director David Schendel presumably signed in blood before hitching a raft ride with Foster on the Green River in Wyoming and Utah to make this engrossing docu-portrait. The 79-year-old – described by one longtime acquaintance as “two toothpicks in a potato” – is improbably hardy after more than 30 years of trekking: in the great American outdoors, Bolivia, Mount Everest, you name it. He needs to be: on one foray, it took him 16 days to locate the right spot. Once the easel is down, the self-taught artist makes luminous, airy panoramas with a jewel-like clarity. It doesn’t seem to be merely a question of imbuing a landscape with his personal feelings. The work, apparently, is meditative; it’s about what the landscape puts into him.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2025/nov/10/tony-foster-painting-at-the-edge-review-going-deep-in-the-quest-for-extreme-landscape-painting">Continue reading...</a>