Letters sent to John and Pat Foster

John Foster (1942-2003) was an artist and farmer who existed on the fringes of the New Zealand art scene for over 30 years. Although he attended several summer art schools at the University of Auckland in the late 1960s and early 70s, and counted Toss Woollaston and Colin McCahon among his tutors and correspondents, he was largely a self-taught artist whose subject matter focused on New Zealand farming life.

Maintaining an expressive, purposefully naïve style, Foster captured sheep shearing, cattle auctions, family beach trips and rural births in giant murals and extensive print series. He was deeply influenced by the primitivist style of McCahon’s early religious paintings, and strove to likewise find a visual language that would resonate with everyday New Zealanders.

This collection of letters and cards were sent to Foster – and also sometimes addressed to his wife Pat, a sculptor – through the 1970s. For most of this period John and Pat were living in a cottage at Mangawhai, actively pursuing careers as fulltime artists. John established a correspondence with a number of artists who he admired, seeking advice from them about his work and how to advance his practice. Although John Foster’s side of the correspondence appears not to survive, this collection of letters and cards offers a fascinating glimpse into the contemporary New Zealand art world, and into the lives and work of Colin McCahon (very brief correspondence), Lois McIvor, Jeffrey Harris, Joanna Paul, Michael Illingworth and Toss Woollaston. Of particular interest is the insight that we get, especially in Woollaston’s letters, into the hard work of being an artist’s wife. Harris’ letters give a sense of Joanna Paul’s struggle to balance her own artistic practice with motherhood and domestic work.