Open Hours
ApPOINTMENTS REQUESTED
(Walk-ins welcome*)
Tuesday – Friday, 10am - 4pm
Saturday – Sunday, 12 - 4pm
*SPECIAL EVENT AND HOLIDAY CLOSURES:
Nov 28-29, Dec 25, Dec 27, Dec 31, Jan 1
Free Admission
The Foster Museum in the news!
Fine Art Connoisseur’s August 2022 article “Going to Extremes: Expeditionary Artist Tony Foster”
Punch Magazine’s January 2022 article “Oasis of Calm: The Foster Spotlights the Journeys of Watercolorist Tony Foster”
Palo Alto Online’s December 2021 article “Wilderness and watercolors: Hidden museum honors one adventurer’s stunning artwork”
Experience beautiful art and inspiring Journeys.
Our mission is to unite, understand, and share Tony Foster’s watercolor wilderness Journeys, inspiring connection to art, nature, and the protection of place.
Who is Tony Foster?
Tony Foster is a plein air artist from Cornwall, United Kingdom. Since 1982, Tony has created a series of watercolor Journeys in the world’s great wildernesses. The majority of his 19 Journeys are focused on themes in the United States. 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.
What is a Journey?
A Journey, Foster’s unique art form, is a series of paintings with accompanying notes 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 Journeys includes multiple expeditions and can take years to complete.
What is The Foster Museum?
The museum is home to Tony Foster’s Journeys. In addition to serving as a presentation place for them, it organizes and collects Tony’s archives and facilitates exhibitions of his Journeys around the globe. The Foster Museum serves as a venue for quiet contemplation, art, conservation, education, community programs, and events. It is our hope that Tony’s Journeys inspire you to enjoy the planet’s wild places and work towards their protection.
Explore all that is on view at The Foster Museum:
Exploring Beauty
Tony Foster’s 16th Journey spans the globe with painting sites nominated by leading scientists, explorers, writers and environmentalists as “the most beautiful places in the world.”
Sacred Places
For his 15th Journey, Tony Foster traveled in the Four Corners region to paint landscapes deemed sacred by Native Americans, Catholics, Mormons and New Age practitioners.
Travels with and without a Donkey in the Cévennes
For his 1st Journey, Travels without a Donkey in the Cévennes, Foster and photographer James Ravilious followed the 120-mile Robert Louis Stevenson trail in 1982, as outlined in Stevenson’s 1879 novel Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes. This exhibition explores both adventures, undertaken a century apart.
Directions & Parking
The Foster Museum is located at 940 Commercial Street in Palo Alto, near the corner of E. Charleston and San Antonio Road. Street parking is generally available, but you may also park in the lot behind the building.
Click on the map for directions.
ACCESSIBILITY
Galleries, restrooms and the Shop are all located on a single level and accessible by wheelchair. Learn more >>