Fragile Planet - Watercolour Journeys into Wild Places

Fragile Planet was a major exhibition of watercolours by Cornwall’s world-renowned wilderness artist, Tony Foster.

A stark picture of the environmental risks now being faced around the world, Fragile Planet - Watercolour Journeys into Wild Places, highlights the precariousness of the world’s wildernesses and endangered environments, many of which Tony has visited and painted over the past 30 years. Sadly, some no longer exist, while others have been dramatically altered by the twin perils of climate change and human intervention.

Fragile Planet focused on five landscape areas - Rainforests, Water, Arctic, Deserts, and Cornwall - with accompanying key information about their plight for each set of breath-taking watercolours.

Tony says: ‘For nearly 40 years I have made my art in the world’s great wildernesses. Nobody can spend long periods of time in these places without becoming concerned for their future. Whilst painting in primary rainforest I heard chainsaws whining and enormous trees crashing to the ground. I canoed down clear rivers where gold dredgers poison the water with mercury; camped in pristine deserts knowing the prehistoric water tables were being sucked dry. In the Arctic, as the ice melts, mining companies are moving into pristine landscapes.  Sitting underwater on scuba, I have drawn myriads of fish of unimaginable variety and beauty, to find, a year later, the corals bleached, and the fish gone.’

Supporters

The Foster

This exhibition has been supported in part by The Foster, a museum in Palo Alto, California, whose mission is to unite and celebrate artist explorer Tony Foster’s watercolour wilderness Journeys and inspire connection to art and the natural world. In addition to serving as a presentation place for Tony’s artwork, the museum organises and collects Tony’s archives and helps facilitate exhibitions of his Journeys around the globe.

Royal Cornwall Museum

This exhibition has been curated and toured by the Royal Cornwall Museum, working collaboratively with Tony Foster and in conjunction with The Foster Museum, Palo Alto, CA.

Header Image: El Rio Cangreahal Looking upriver, Tony Foster.