Biography
b. 1971, Leeds UK
Liz Foster was born in Leeds in 1971. She’s the third of four children, growing up in rural East Yorkshire - a flat, isolated landscape punctuated by power stations and industrial farms.
After college she applied to the Glasgow School of Art and was accepted onto their first year programme. Initially her intention was to study printmaking, but she was advised by her tutor that she was a painter - she didn't argue.
Her life as a painter has unfolded alongside travel, varied work, parenthood, and resilience, a balance that continues to shape her practice. Foster’s paintings embody the push and pull of life’s complexity, drawing on observation, memory, and abstract ideas. Through colour, repetition, and gestural mark-making, she creates expansive, process-led works that invite reflection and slow looking.
Colour has always been central to her work. She recalls her childhood in dark browns and greens—avocado carpets, shiny brown furniture—so colour became, and remains, deeply emotional. Today, her palette is constantly evolving, combining playful intuition with control and precision. This distinctive use of colour has become a hallmark of her practice.
Foster has exhibited widely across the UK, including at the RA Summer Exhibition, the Royal Scottish Academy, the Royal West of England Academy, Mercer Art Gallery, Ferens Art Gallery, and York Art Gallery. Her work is held in both public and private collections in the UK and abroad. She has twice been long-listed for the John Moores Painting Prize.
Alongside her studio practice, she teaches painting and mentors other artists, sustaining an ongoing dialogue that enriches her own process and supports the wider creative community.
Statement
My practice is one of continuous transition and evolution. My current paintings explore ideas around the passing of time; the repetitive brush marks act as a visual representation of transience - counting out moments one by one.
By repeating and building layers of marks, they create a pattern. The pattern, in turn, forms rhythmic motifs and forms that can be read as macro or micro views of the world.
As a process-led painter I don’t plan a final image before I begin. I lay down marks and then respond to them, building a painting by adding, removing and editing the image over several months. I might use a particular colour palette to drive a work, but this also has to shift and evolve as the painting develops. For me, painting is a balance between control and instinct. The final composition only comes into focus towards the end of the process.
My paintings are abstract, reflecting my thoughts, feelings and memories but not illustrating them. The material quality of the paint is equally as important as the theme and colour is always central to what I do.
Painting is a fundamental expression of who I am, it is my language. I find joy in the materials and each work is a new adventure, posing questions and challenges that are limitless and fascinating
Education
2002-04 University of Hull, MA, Fine Art
1990-94 Glasgow School of Art, BA(hons) Fine Art - Drawing and Painting
1993 School of the Art Institute of Chicago - study exchange
Solo Exhibitions
2024 Paintings, Rise@Bluebird, York
2007 Flower, National Trust Beningbrough Hall, York
2007 Miscellany, National Trust Beningbrough Hall, York
2006 Taste, 20-21 Visual Arts Centre, Scunthorpe
1999 New Paintings, Air Gallery, London
1998 Paintings, Taunton School, Somerset
Selected Group Exhibitions
2025 Paper Works, Royal West of England Academy, Bristol
2025 The Other Collective, Rise@Bluebird, York
2023 Leeds Summer Group Show, Leeds Playhouse, Leeds
2023 ArtSpace Open, Old Parcels Office, Scarborough
2022 The Mercer Open, Mercer Art Gallery, Harrogate
2022 Kaleidoscope, The Bowery, Leeds
2022 Joy, Dovecot Gallery, Doncaster
2022 The Ferens Open, Ferens Art Gallery, Hull
2022 Art on a Postcard, The Bomb Factory, London
2022 Colour, Fronteer Gallery, Sheffield
2021 Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London
2021 The Edit, One Good Gift, Sheffield
2021 Towards the Light, The Art Cafe Contemporary, Whitby
2021 Re-Cultivate, Cultivate Gallery, London
2020 New Light ‘Curator’s Choice’, Scarborough Art Gallery, Scarborough
2019 The Ferens Open, Ferens Art Gallery, Hull
2019 YOS Exhibition, St Mary’s Arts Centre, York
2009 Summer Show, The Art Café, Whitby
2008 magical/mystical/nature, Friar Lane Gallery, Nottingham
2006 Multiplicity, Kirkleatham Museum and Art Gallery, Redcar
2004 Painting is Dead, Long Live Painting, Hastings Museum & Art Gallery
2004 Women’s Work, Artlink Gallery, Hull
2003 Unframed, Cupola Art Gallery, Sheffield
1997 York Open, York City Art Gallery, York
1995 6×6, University of Northumbria, Newcastle
1994 New Generation, The Compass Gallery, Glasgow
1994 Paths of Exploration, The Assembly Rooms, Glasgow
1993 R.S.A. Student Exhibition, Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh
Awards & Residencies
2023 Artist Surfaces Award - Artist Support Pledge
1997-98 Artist in Residence, Taunton School, Somerset
1993 Student Exchange Award - School of the Art Institute of Chicago
Art Fairs
2021 art&York (online only)
2019 art&York
2008 London Art Fair, represented by Beverley Knowles Fine Art
Editorial
‘Featured Artist’ – An Interview with the Visual Artists Association – CLICK HERE TO READ
‘Meet the Artists’ – Q&A with ONE GOOD GIFT
‘Aesthetic grit and fish & chips’ – Interview with Northern Soul CLICK HERE TO READ
