I was born in North Wales in 1943. My father, who was an excellent draughtsman, taught me drawing and painting from a very early age, so that even as a child I never drew or painted like a child. This early work was always in a very traditional and academic style and I knew nothing of art beyond this until I went to an Art School in London in the early sixties.

There my tutor was dedicated to the American abstract artists and I was expected to produce similar paintings without remotely understanding how or why, so I became very confused and disillusioned. It wasn't until I saw the first Francis Bacon retrospective exhibition at the Tate Gallery that everything suddenly fell into place and I knew I wanted to be a figurative painter.

For many years I was greatly influenced by Bacon's work but since my paintings would always be founded on the discipline of drawing I knew I would eventually find and develop my own very different technique and style. It is this discipline, based on the ability to draw, that I have always admired in the paintings of the Italian Renaissance artists and I want my work to be as firmly constructed and classical.

I have always been fascinated by the human figure in motion. Running, jumping or even just turning it contains an amazing set of internal lines, structures and shapes. These are what interest me and - using live models or photographs and videos I have taken myself as source material - I try to re-create them in order to convey the energy and rhythm of their movement. Sometimes I feel I am almost painting music.

I do not re-invent my figures, everything is already there. It is simply a process of reduction and selection, trying to find the basic essence, often to the extent of discarding any recognisable outside form.

Michael Milburn Foster

Milburn Foster's work can be found in many private collections, the majority in London, Sydney, Paris, Zurich, Brussels and Budapest. His studio is currently in Budapest but he plans to return to live in France.

Michael is represented by Ellen Bruckmann-Delman. Ms Bruckmann is a contemporary art dealer from New York City. She attended the City University of New York (CUNY) at Queens (BA-Fine Arts) and received her Masters degree (Synaesthetics and Communication Art) from Syracuse University. Before moving to Zurich, she held positions as a Business Advancement Coordinator in the N.Y.C. Mayor's Office of Economic Development and as Creative Marketing Director for an international art licensing company – her dream job. Always an ardent Europa-phile, in 1984 she settled in Switzerland where she founded her own art consulting company. In addition to pursuing her passion for art, she is active in international community affairs, has served as president of various ex-pat organizations and is involved in philanthropic causes.

Ms. Bruckmann is pleased and enthusiastic to represent Michael Milburn Foster and says that his works are a synthesis of reality and fantasy created by and through the dynamics and dynamism of sensual movement.

This is how Michael expresses the motivation for his art: "I have always been fascinated by the human figure in motion. Running, jumping or simply just turning, it contains an amazing set of internal lines, structures and shapes. These are the ones I study in order to create what I hope suggests the energy and rhythm of its movement. Sometimes I feel I am almost drawing music"