Obituary

Candace June Mooser (Candy)

1952-2018

Candy loved art, science and music and of course her family.  She was born in Berkeley, California and always remembered her childhood there as the perfect place.  After moving around with her mother, she finished high school in Visalia, California and then left home to go to college at UC Riverside, which is where we met.  She was a Biology major at Riverside and she was an outstanding student whose professors strongly encouraged her to pursue a career in medicine.  As she graduated she met many people, but, in particular, her friend Susan in the Geology Department.  She became the head technician in the stable isotope lab for the US Geological Survey for several years even moving back to Virginia for a time.  She was athletic and played volleyball at lunch with Susan and many friends in the department.  She also enjoyed playing the flute, piano and guitar and had a strong singing voice she loved to use, especially around campfires in the desert.  She sang all the time and especially loved singing to the boys when they were babies.

Candy loved to travel and had no fear of taking off on her own.  She went to England and Scotland alone, traveled in Ireland with her friend Susan and we went through Europe and England on our travels together.  We always meant to go back!  She would always recall her favorite trips were those with our two boys to Hawaii and on the Disney Magic Cruise.  She traveled with me on business and was always a hit with my associates when they discovered her breadth and depth of knowledge on so many subjects.  She was a great conversationalist and was as insightful and perceptive as she was sensitive.  She taught for several years at Golden West College and could have taken a number of permanent positions as a teacher but decided on getting her Master of Fine Arts from Cal State Fullerton which she did in 1993. She became a professional artist showing her work in a gallery in Los Angeles and spent several years at the Laguna Beach Art-A-Fair showing her art.  Her work has sold all over the country.

We were married in 1982 in Idyllwild, California and lived in Laguna Beach for many years until our boys were born.  She fell ill to Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma in 1995.  We moved to Irvine in 1997 where we have lived ever since, raising the boys, Cameron and Brian.  She leaves us behind as well as her older brother William.

In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation in Candy’s name to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, http://www.lls.org/

Artist’s Statement

Candace Foster

Candace Foster paints landscapes that provide an escape to a quiet, reflective space, and express an interest in nature and its underlying processes.  She uses the traditional medium of oil, and although influenced by both impressionism and current plein aire styles, she also shows an appreciation for classical clarity. To enable this, her works are completed in the studio to provide more time for contemplation and development.

She has multiple degrees in biology and art, and has taught courses in both fields.  Her knowledge of biology and geology allows her to view the natural world with greater insight, and her paintings show an understanding of the forms and processes of nature.  “What I know about science helps me to see nature more clearly, and painting nature helps me learn from it.”

She starts with an idea.  It may be based on mankind’s place in the natural world, the necessity of preserving wild areas, or the age-old songs of the earth. All the elements of the painting support the initial idea.  She selects a milieu that she is familiar with, gathers photos, sketches, and color notes, and develops several small pencil studies to establish the composition.  The composition also supports the mood she is aiming for, generally one of tranquility and timelessness. The events within the painting such as weather, time of day, etc., also play a role in establishing the narrative.

The evolution of man’s relationship to nature is reflected in landscapes.  What was seen in the Middle Ages as a dangerous chaotic world became the idyllic background to the activities of gods and humans during the Renaissance.  Romantic Era artists extolled the sublime, depicting the awe-inspiring forces of nature and its existential effects on the human psyche.  Contemporary landscapes reflect this tradition, but also allude to the fragility of the environment in an industrialized age.

Due to her training as a scientist and an artist, Candace Foster brings a unique balance to her work that draws upon both left and right brains. This infuses her paintings with a gravitas that endows her landscapes with meanings that go well beyond the pictorial.  Viewers are invited to contemplate their reactions to wild undeveloped spaces, the brevity of our time on earth in comparison to the millennia it has existed, and the need to balance responsible use of our planet with its preservation.