Karl S. Foster

Karl Foster

Karl Foster was born February 4, 1933, and grew up in Ardmore, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Philadelphia. He attended the Philadelphia College of Art (now the University of the Arts) where he received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1955. Shortly after graduation he moved to the Harrisburg area of Pennsylvania and has worked in the commercial art field there ever since, currently doing free lance illustration for numerous local businesses. He also does many portraits of prominent and not so prominent people.

Like many other commercial artists, he devotes much of his spare time to his “fine art” work and over the years has acquired a favorable reputation as a realistic painter of the human figure. He teaches a figure sketching class at the Art Association of Harrisburg, a portrait/figure class at the York Art Association, and a figure painting class, a portrait class and a sculpture class at the Mechanicsburg Art Center. He also taught figure illustration for many years at the former York Academy of Arts and at the Pennsylvania School of Art and Design in Lancaster.

His artwork concentrates on realistic depictions of the human form by which he tries to instill in viewers some of his fascination with the variety, character and beauty of their fellow human beings. He works in many media including charcoal, pencil, ink, pastel, acrylic, oil and sculpture. He has won numerous awards and exhibited in many local and regional shows at the Art Association of Harrisburg, Mechanicsburg Art Center, William Penn Museum, Central Penn Business School, Lebanon Valley College, York College, Penn State University at Harrisburg, Harrisburg Area Community College, York Art Association, Berks Art Alliance and Bald Eagle Art League. He has also exhibited in national shows in New York City, such as the Pastel Society of America Annual, NATIONAL Sculpture Society Annual and the Knckerbocker Artists Annual.

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