Artist inspired by America’s veterans

  • Published
  • By Jeanne Grimes
  • Oklahoma City Air Logistics Center Public Affairs
TINKER AIR FORCE BASE, Okla. (AFPN) --  Some see a leather jacket as something to wear, an airplane as a machine that flies and a motorcycle gas tank as a mere container.

R.T. Foster looks at them and sees blank canvases.

The illustrator, who marks 34 years of federal service in August, has made a name for himself as an artist painting subjects ranging from historical aviation and Civil War battle scenes to portraiture and North American wildlife.

His works depicting World War II ace Robert Johnson, the battleship USS Oklahoma and the 45th Infantry Division’s participation in the Korean War battle for Pork Chop Hill are on permanent display in the Oklahoma state capital. Foster’s paintings also hang in the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum, San Diego Air and Space Museum and Commemorative Air Force Museum.

“Between my work here and the work at home, I probably get four hours sleep,” Foster said, adding that his favorite media are acrylics and pencil. “I don’t do much (with) oils. I don’t have the luxury of drying time.”

Foster, a native Oklahoman born in El Reno and raised in Oklahoma City, said art is “something I have always done.”

“I started as a kid and haven’t stopped,” he continued. “You just paint; you have got to love it to put in that many hours and still have fun with it.”

Part of the secret, Foster said, is he has “never treated art as any big mystery.”

There is too much in life waiting to be enjoyed to waste time on what the self-taught artist calls an “ego trip.” His art primer is direct and simple.

“You stay with it and practice until it looks right,” he said.

Foster said his fame has spread largely through word-of-mouth. He receives two or three commissions a week, and has built a business with the help of his wife, Gaytha, and their daughters, Heather, Laural and Sara.

Historical photographs and eyewitness accounts are as much Foster’s tools as his pencils, brushes and paints, and he considers his most meaningful work is what he does for veterans.

“I enjoy doing the artwork, especially for the veterans. It helps them relive memories,” he said.

Many are the veterans of America’s past conflicts that he counts as friends. Some are famous; others are not. All have stories waiting for Foster to spin with his brushes.

He has known retired Air Force Brig. Gen. Paul Tibbets Jr., for many years. In the final days of World War II, Tibbets piloted a B-29 Superfortress, Enola Gay, dropping the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan.

He also had the opportunity to meet George Gay Jr., the only survivor of the doomed Torpedo Squadron 8 which was wiped out during the Battle of Midway.

“He signed one of my prints,” Foster said of Gay, who died in 1994.

The artist was also tapped in 2002 to be the official artist of the Doolittle Raiders and the 60th commemoration of the raid on Tokyo by 16 Army B-25 medium bombers led by Lt. Col. James “Jimmy” Doolittle.

“It’s not just the machines,” Foster said, “but the men in them. They are the real heroes. People like Gay (and) Tibbets. Even the ones who aren’t famous. Their history is going away too quick.”

Many of the people Foster painted have become his close friends.

“A vet will open up to another vet,” said Foster, a Marine who served two and a half tours in Vietnam. “I want to pay tribute to the guys. World War II vets came home as heroes, rightfully so.”

Far different from his own return from the jungles of Southeast Asia which may account for why Foster has as yet only painted one or two pieces on Vietnam.

“Sometime I might do more,” he said. “I don’t care what you call it. When somebody’s shooting at your ass, it’s a war. I just want people to look at something and remember. Somebody needs to tell these guys (Vietnam veterans) what they did was good and noble.”