Ray Foster was raised in Connecticut. He has been a full time arts and antiques dealer since 1986. He started as an exhibitor at shows throughout the north east, as well as assisting other dealers at shows as far away as New York City, Brandywine, Alexandria, and Nashville. He participated in as many as 20 shows per year. In the 1980s and 1990s, he managed Horace Porter Antiques in South Windsor, Connecticut. It was during that time that he started furniture restoration for collectors and other dealers, specializing in paint decorated furniture and early surfaces from the 17th and 18th centuries. His appreciation for impressionist painting led him to try his hand at painting pictures. He had already been visiting Maine at his grandparent’s coastal farm during summer and produced his first pieces there.
Foster still continues to be inspired by the beauty of the area in Eastern Maine where he has now lived for the past 10 years. He has the best of both Maine and Connecticut in terms of exposure. He has not had any formal training as a painter but he has developed a style of his own concentrating on atmospheric conditions such as storms, sea smoke, fog, as well as clear brilliance of a mid summer day on Maine’s coast. Foster has been painting for more than 10 years. He is inspired by many Maine artists, including Rockwell Kent and Marsden Hartley, among others. Although he doesn't paint like them, he pushes his light and color keys in a way that is almost similar to that of the Maine artists.
