R . D . F O S T E R N E W Z E A L A N D A R T I S T

Introducing Rachel Foster

Past & Present

My art study began with a Diploma in Photography at Unitech. My creative process still involves taking photographs, capturing local landscape in atmospheric conditions, but now as a reference point for my paintings.

My first love is painting, and it has been the realization of a dream to have completed a Graduate Diploma in Painting (with merit) from the Dunedin School of Art, Otago Polytechnic in 2019. I have further consolidated my art practice by completing a Postgraduate Diploma in Painting (with merit) in 2022. I am also represented through the gallery, The Artist Room http://www.theartistsroom.co.nz./. and Moray Gallery https://www.moraygallery.com/, and I exhibit through the Otago Art Society.

Awards- Special Mention, Hope and Sons Art Awards, 2026. Otago Art Society.

First Prize, Spring Exhibition, 2023, Otago Art Society.

My influences include:

J.M.W. Turner
Romantic and New Romantic movements in Art
Contemporary New Zealand artists Garry Currin, Catherine Roberts, Bill Hammond
Chinese artist Zhang Daqian

PHOTO CREDIT: Edith Leigh Photographer

Creative Process

My process begins with painting the landscape spontaneously and intuitively. By brushing on layers of acrylic glazes, I can build up deep colours while allowing the back light of the underpainting to filter through. A spontaneous approach means the composition reveals itself to me as I work.

Appearing in a vignette, the colours of my ethereal floating landscapes suggest mist, portals, and utopian worlds. I hope to encourage ideas of a connection to the metaphysical; ideas of something beyond the everyday. My goal, however, is not to overwhelm the viewer with religious dogma but to express another way of seeing, capturing the spirit of the land in which we live. The New Zealand landscape is a constant reference, with its majestic beauty; the sublime is ever-present.

Hope and Sons Art Awards Exhibition 2026 Review, by Judge Holly Macknivon

Special Mention: Rachel Foster, St Leonards Inlet – Dusk, acrylic and ink

An evocative, atmospheric work that, while anchored in an actual location, also engages deeply with imagination and materiality. The scene is imbued with a quiet magic and mystery and recalls the rich traditions of Chinese and Japanese landscape painting. The result is a dreamlike, expressive landscape that hovers delicately between observation and reverie.

Review by James Dignan, Otago Daily Times
March 18, 2021

“EMERGING”

An exhibition of works by Jessica Ross and Rachel Foster

The Artist's Room Gallery, Dunedin

Jessica Ross and Rachel Foster have an intriguing joint exhibition on display at The Artist's Room. Using similarly muted palettes, the two artists capture glimpses of landscape and the marks of humans upon it.

In Foster's case, this mark is through structures disappearing into mist, for Ross, it is more the spiritual mark or connection between whenua and whakapapa.

Foster's acrylic paintings create a swirling, atmospheric Otago full of mists and deep earthy tones. Using a Turneresque technique, she has created vortices of colour with long, bold strokes. Sky and land merge and the paint has been allowed to drip down the canvas as it to suggest a bleeding of realties between the two dimensions.

The prosaic presentation of human interactions within the countryside, often the symbolic lone telegraph pole are the only indications of any solidity to the land. The composition and power of these haunting works is a nod to the other string of Foster's artistic bow, landscape photography.

Recent Exhibitions