Being reunited with beaches familiar to her throughout her childhood, full of memories past and present brought up concerns about how it has changed considerably over the decades, eg., cliffs disappearing into the sea and the increasing issues of plastic pollution found on our shores day to day. Her most recent work is created to bring some awareness to this as well as the phenomenal scale of plastic washed up on our precious shores. She draws inspiration from eroding rocks, incorporating the bits of plastic she finds on the South Devon Coast, creating multi-layered pieces.

Somerset based artist, Maxine Foster’s prints draw inspiration from the urban and natural environments. Having one foot in the city and one foot in the coast has had a profound effect on her and her practice, emulating the ebb and flow of the tide. Whether creating pieces inspired by the urban landscape or the natural landscape, it’s an ingrained, intuitive response to what is in front of her. She goes with the flow: the flow between the two personalities of her practice reflecting their connections through water sources. 

Working mainly in monotype, Foster frequently uses palimpsest within the complexity of her multi-layered prints. Inspired by her surroundings, these seeming disparate urban and natural environments are linked, by decades of unique erosion and decay, whether caused by natural or man-made interventions. Foster builds up complex layers, combining multiple print processes, layering up the substate with dry-point etching, carborundum and collagraph, chine collé and monoprinted collage.

Foster graduated from The University of the West of England, Bristol in June 2018 with a Masters in Multi-Disciplinary Printmaking, going on to win the Graduate/Student/ Prize at the Flourish Award 2018.More recently in 2021, Her multi-layered print ‘Solitude ll’ won the Printmaking Prize, at the Bath Society of Artist’s Annual Summer Exhibition.Foster has been selected for major shows, includingThe Victoria Gallery (Bath) andRWA (Bristol) Summer Shows, The RBSA (Birmingham), The Master’s ‘Screen and Stone’ (Bankside Gallery, London), Interruptions Exhibition (Athens), Gallery 57 (London) and the Irving Contemporary (Oxford).