Finding time to paint is always a challenge for Michael Foster, a full-time art teacher at Waukesha South High School who works to balance teaching, coaching track, and spending time at home with his art. He credits his current success as an artist with certain techniques employed in the classroom, such as planned and impromptu demonstrations as well as live model work. And it’s his natural interest in working with people that has led to his primary subject matter: the human figure.

Mike’s subject matter has been primarily young women, caught in idle moments when they were unguarded or lost in thought. They are contemplative pieces that tell a narrative through body language. He likes using a black silhouette of the torso, eliminating detail and letting the shape speak for itself. He separates the figures on individual panels; some set apart by a spacer. This serves to exemplify the individual’s own reality, juxtaposed with an alternate reality. In choosing models, Mike searches for highly expressive personalities, asserting that body language speaks more clearly about an individual than crowding the image with objects or environment. He deliberately paints the background using colors from the figure so that the finished piece is highly specific to the sitter.

Despite his limited time for painting, Mike’s work received a jump start a few years ago as he completed his master’s degree in fine arts at Cardinal Stritch University. He recently finished a public commission for the Waukesha Public Library that is comprised of a series of large oil panels (6′x12′) and hangs in the entryway. It’s titled “Sensing the Whole.” Mike is a graduate of Carroll College.

Mike will be a guest artist at the William Lemke studio.