About Marianna Foster
BIOGRAPHY Marianna Foster was born and educated in Ukraine, relocating to Phoenix, Arizona in 2012 with her husband and two little children. In Ukarine she was classically trained, graduating from the prestigious National Institute of Fine Arts and Architecture in Kiev with a Master of Arts degree and was certified for design, graphics, and lecture. At the institute she had daily classes in painting, drawing, anatomy, and art history. Prior to the Institute, she studied for five years at the Children's Art School in Nikolaev, Ukraine. In addition to classes, Marianna studied painting and drawing privately with famous masters of Ukrainian and Russian art. Marianna's talent for art was first noticed at age 6 by her father, when he saw her hand-copied pictures taken from books and bubble gum wrappers. This casual demonstration of aptitude set her on a lifetime course of study and personal development of her vision. During her early professional life, Marianna took a short detour into art direction, design, and photography. In that capacity she applied her artistic eye for commercial applications, winning awards and recognition for her concepts and photos. Although Marianna excelled in that work, she now focuses on bringing out her own vision in paintings and drawings.
ARTISTS STATEMENT My inspiration centers on figures: people and animals. During my six years studying at the Institute, we started each morning with drawing and painting live models. Young and old, men or women, each had not only different body, face, clothes, and accessories, but also different stories of their life. For me it was interesting to study how these things connected together. Primarily I use classical techniques to represent the modern world in my paintings. Sometimes this is from something seen, a conversation, something I've read, or even Internet discussions. Light and colors can create a new story from the original inspiration. My goal is not to convince viewers to take only my point of view. I hope viewers can find in my paintings something to relate to themselves. The ideas are everywhere and as soon as they touch me I'm ready to express them on canvas.
* This statement has been provided directly by the artist in association to their 14th International ARC Salon entries. This content has not been edited for typos or grammatical errors and has not been vetted for accuracy.
