Skip to main content
Want more images or videos?
Request additional images or videos from the seller
1 of 8

Heather Foster
Hey Friend, Why the Long Face?, Original Painting

2020

About the Item

Artist Comments
"These two friends were at the Santa Fe rodeo grounds, early in the morning, just after they were fed," shares artist Heather Foster. "They were relaxed together and curious about me at the same time. I love how their noses are like a hand, investigating and exploring new people. The sun was still low, but intense at the same time. They were almost completely backlit, which highlighted their chin hairs and whiskers, making it fun to paint and show that."


About the Artist
Artist Heather Foster captures an enduring image of the West. She paints the dramatic landscapes and stalwart animals she encounters on her adventures to ranches and rodeos. Heather says she has always known she wanted to be an artist. As a child, she spent her weekends and summers riding the bus into Philadelphia to attend art classes at Philadelphia College of Art, Moore College of Art, and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. Over the years, she's moved around the country quite a bit and done many jobs - everything from driving a pedicab (a giant tricycle that transports passengers) to art restoration and conservation (for one project, she unstretched and then restretched a $17 million painting that would not fit through the door of the buyer's house). The one constant though, no matter where she lived or what side jobs she held, she always made space and time to paint. Today, she works from a home studio in Santa Fe, painting from thousands of reference photographs she shoots on her travels. Her artwork has been featured in the magazines Southwest Art, American Art Collector, and Western Art Collector, and published in the books Art Journey New Mexico and The Book of the Horse.


Words that describe this painting: horses, portrait, animals, rodeo, western, equestrian, animals, western, realism, representational, acrylic painting, brown


Hey Friend, Why the Long Face?
Heather Foster
Acrylic painting on stretched canvas
Finished edges
Ready to hang
One-of-a-kind
Signed on front and back
2020
36 in. h x 36 in. w x 1.5 in. d
4 lbs. 4 oz.


  • Creator:
    Heather Foster (American)
  • Creation Year:
    2020
  • Dimensions:
    Height: 36 in (91.44 cm)Width: 36 in (91.44 cm)Depth: 1.5 in (3.81 cm)
  • Medium:
  • Movement & Style:
  • Period:
  • Condition:
    Hey Friend, Why the Long Face?. Heather Foster. Acrylic painting on stretched canvas. Finished edges. Ready to hang. One-of-a-kind. Signed on front and back.
  • Gallery Location:
    San Francisco, CA
  • Reference Number:
    Seller: 697641stDibs: LU92217170992

More From This Seller

View All
Off With a Splash III, Original Painting
By Emil Morhardt
Located in San Francisco, CA

Artist Comments
Artist Emil Morhardt paints a glaucous-winged gull lifting off Glacier Bay National Park, Alaska. He paints the bird splashing the crystalline water in detailed realism. "These big gulls are unafraid of brown bears, dodging between their legs to grab morsels," says Emil. He highlights the piece with a silvery edge reflecting a dazzlingly sunny day.


About the Artist
Emil Morhardt is an acrylic painter from Santa Barbara, California who expresses his passion for birds through realistic acrylic paintings. He paints at home in a studio room that has large windows and a north-facing view of the mountains. He observes the animals from this window, watching roadrunners, foxes, bobcats, deer, and coyote run by. Surrounded by this wildlife, Emil paints bird portraits reminiscent of those by artist John James Audubon. He bases his paintings off hundreds of photographs he takes of birds in the wild and at wildlife recovery centers. Emil captures the freedom and inquisitiveness that birds display in the natural world. Before painting birds, he painted landscapes of San Francisco and the Eastern Sierra. Emil was raised in the high desert of California and learned to paint from his father, who was one of the early California watercolorists...

Category

21st Century and Contemporary American Realist Animal Paintings

Materials

Acrylic

Three Pelicans, Original Painting
By Emil Morhardt
Located in San Francisco, CA

Artist Comments
Artist Emil Morhardt displays an impressionist portrait of three brown pelicans. The birds sun themselves in the Sea of Cortez against a subtle greenish-blue late afternoon sky. "I hadn't thought about pelicans having a 3D vision like hawks until I was looking over my photos and saw one of the birds staring straight at me," shares Emil. He references his photographs from a National Geographic Zodiac that the pelicans seemed curious about, allowing very close viewing.


About the Artist
Emil Morhardt is an acrylic painter from Santa Barbara, California who expresses his passion for birds through realistic acrylic paintings. He paints at home in a studio room that has large windows and a north-facing view of the mountains. He observes the animals from this window, watching roadrunners, foxes, bobcats, deer, and coyote run by. Surrounded by this wildlife, Emil paints bird portraits reminiscent of those by artist John James Audubon. He bases his paintings off hundreds of photographs he takes of birds in the wild and at wildlife recovery centers. Emil captures the freedom and inquisitiveness that birds display in the natural world. Before painting birds, he painted landscapes of San Francisco and the Eastern Sierra. Emil was raised in the high desert of California and learned to paint from his father, who was one of the early California watercolorists...

Category

21st Century and Contemporary American Realist Animal Paintings

Materials

Acrylic

A Northern Shoveler Churning
By Emil Morhardt
Located in San Francisco, CA

Artist Comments
Sometimes these handsome ducks, who feed at the Santa Barbara Bird Refuge by plowing through the water with their bills open, take a break from shoveling and ...

Category

21st Century and Contemporary American Realist Animal Paintings

Materials

Acrylic

Sleepy Willet
By Emil Morhardt
Located in San Francisco, CA

Artist Comments
Willets are usually at the edge of the surf, poking into the wet sand as they follow each wave in and out. This one, when I came on him, was standing above th...

Category

21st Century and Contemporary American Realist Animal Paintings

Materials

Acrylic

Three Long-Billed Curlews, Original Painting
By Emil Morhardt
Located in San Francisco, CA

Artist Comments
Long-Billed Curlews, some of the largest of the shorebirds, often hang out together, milling around at the edge of the surf, then wading in to feed. I spotted...

Category

21st Century and Contemporary American Realist Animal Paintings

Materials

Acrylic

378, Original Painting
Located in San Francisco, CA

Artist Comments
Artist Heather Foster encountered this inquisitive subject while painting en plein air. "This nosy California girl wanted to be front and center to see what t...

Category

21st Century and Contemporary American Realist Animal Paintings

Materials

Acrylic

You May Also Like

Bucks On The Madison Bench
Located in Missouri, MO
Bucks On The Madison Bench, 1990 By Larry Zabel (1930-2012) Signed and Dated Lower Right Unframed: 18" x 36" Framed: 26.25" x 44.25" Cowboy artist Larry Zabel was born in Deer Creek, Minnesota, and settled about 70 miles from Yellowstone National Park near McAllister, Montana. Carving and drawing were primary boyhood interests of Zabels. He received an art degree from Long Beach State in California, and spent an additional year at the University of the Americas (formerly Mexico City College). This background led him into a career in technical and commercial illustration, including a decade at the Naval Weapons Center in the California desert, involved in various audio-visual activities. Zabel labeled himself a cowboy artist, as he and his wife moved to Montana in 1988, allowing him to live out a fantasy of Indians, cowboys, and bears. There he was able to paint the life he wanted to live. The subjects of his works include a wide variety of wildlife native to Montana, but his earlier paintings focused on cowboys and Indians. Zabel strove for accurate portrayals, and was most satisfied when the viewer recognized his canyons, ranches, and animals. His acknowledgements and awards include Artist of the Year at the Southern Maryland Wildlife Festival and Best Painting at the Charlie Russell...
Category

20th Century American Realist Animal Paintings

Materials

Acrylic, Canvas

Golden frame
Located in Zofingen, AG
"Arabian breed on a golden background. Mixed media. Oil and gold acrylic. Minimalist style or Scandinavian style. • It is painted on canvas with high quality oil paints. • The paint...
Category

2010s American Realist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Linen, Oil, Acrylic

You are my sweet strawberry berry.
Located in Zofingen, AG
Charming, delicious still life with ripe fruits of strawberries. I just want to reach out and take a red fragrant berry. I specially applied the technique of painting, putting a deli...
Category

2010s American Realist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Pastel, Acrylic, Cardboard

"LAST LIGHT" WESTERN, COWBOY, HORSE, LIGHT, TEXAS HILL COUNTRY
By James Robinson
Located in San Antonio, TX
James Robinson (1944-2015) Austin, Dallas, Houston Artist Image Size: 24 x 36 Frame Size: 32 x 44 Medium: Acrylic on Canvas Clearly signed lower left quadrant about an inch above the...
Category

Late 20th Century American Realist Landscape Paintings

Materials

Acrylic

Brown Rabbit on Tourquoise
Located in Columbia, MO
Nora Othic is considered one of the top regionalist painters in the Midwest. She builds on a legacy from her artistic predecessors such as Grant Wood, Thomas Hart Benton and the WPA ...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary American Realist Animal Paintings

Materials

Acrylic, Wood Panel

Dinosaurs and volcano. Jurassic park like image
Located in Miami, FL
From the Glynn and Suzanne Crain Collection, unsigned
Category

1960s American Realist Landscape Paintings

Materials

Acrylic

Recently Viewed

View All