Michael Foers spent many of his formative years working in Canada's north as a lumberjack, prospector and trapper. Deep in the rugged northern forests the light, particularly the slanting, richly hued light of early morning and twilight, enthralled him. He promised himself: 'someday I will paint that.' In his early 20s, inspired by the work of Tom Thomson, leader of Canada's famous Group of Seven, he devoted himself to being an artist.
In a bold, intuitive and impressionistic style Michael's paintings capture the interplay of light, water and organic forms. His painting trips take him to private gardens and ponds and into the bush country, often by canoe. He paints plein-air and produces both small oil sketches and canvases. From the smaller sketches Michael often finds inspiration to produce larger works in his studio, especially those that allow him to explore and develop his increasing fascination with the properties of light and water.
For the last 20 years he has been painting in oils and, while his subject continues to be the romance of land and waterscapes, recently he has begun to apply his distinctive colour sense to studies of the human figure.