As the wife of an Air Force
officer, Gloria lived in many parts of the United States and Japan. While still a
relatively new artist, her oil paintings were accepted in three juried shows at the
National Museum in Ueno Park, Tokyo. Subsequently, she became the first foreigner
invited to join the prestigious Japanese Shinkaijusha Art Guild, sponsors of the juried
shows.
Gloria and her husband Walter lived
in Honolulu since his retirement from the Air Force. She began to teach oil painting
classes in 1970 and in the interim has taught well over 1500 adults. Known for her
excellent color sense, Gloria credits her early fascination and knowledge of color with
her experience in the Princeton, New Jersey laboratory of her brother-in-law, the renowned
color consultant, Carl E. Foss. Years later, while teaching three different classes a
week herself, Foss attended the University of Hawaii and earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts
degree. Later, she founded the Foss School of Fine Arts in Honolulu and directed it
until 1985 when she closed it in order to write and illustrate a book based on her
teaching principles.
How to Paint: A Course in the
Art of Oil Painting was published by Watson-Guptill Publications in 1991. This
beautiful hard cover book has 245 full color and 180 black and white illustrations, most
of which were done by the author. While the hard cover book is now out of print, it
is fortunately available in CD-ROM format from Walt Foss.
The American Artist Book Club
featured How to Paint as the Book of the Month when it first came out.
It was especially well received by art students who found it easy to
understand, as well as by art teachers, many of whom use it as a text or
reference book in their classes. Although long out of print, Walt Foss still
receives inquiries from far-flung strangers about where to find a copy.
