A charming and humorous pair of original oil sketches by British artist Ross Foster, painted directly onto the covers of vintage books. Each piece features a stylised, almost cartoon-like soldier in a bold black-and-white striped uniform, accented with lively red details and playful posture.
Ross Foster is a British contemporary painter known for his vibrant seaside and fairground scenes executed in a post-modern impressionist style, and celebrated as a winner of the BBC “Artist of the Year” national competition.
Rendered in Foster’s expressive, painterly style, these figures blend whimsy with a hint of satire — each soldier holding a lance and set against loosely brushed pastel backgrounds suggesting both stage and sky. The unconventional use of old book covers as canvases adds a delightful textural depth and a sense of creative spontaneity.
Signed and dated 1982, this pair perfectly captures Foster’s distinctive flair for transforming everyday subjects into vivid, characterful compositions.
