"Ghost of the Rockies"
Oil on canvas
The puma is called the 'ghost of the mountains' — because it is there, everywhere in the Rockies, and yet almost never seen. Tracks in the snow, a sudden silence, a branch that moves. Nothing more. I wanted to paint this animal as it exists in the imagination: sovereign, motionless, and surveying something beyond our reach.
The framing is a close portrait, slightly from below — we look up towards him, as though it were he who had chosen to let us look. The background is deliberately hazy: bare trees drowned in grey-blue mist, an almost unreal winter atmosphere. That blur focuses all attention on him.
The light descends from above, golden, warming the skull and shoulders in a sandy rust — almost solar touches against a cold, misty backdrop. I played on this contrast in temperature: the warmth of the coat against the cold of the setting. The granite of the rock, grey-green and rough beneath the paws, anchors the composition in something mineral, against which the puma seems even more alive.
His green-amber eyes look straight into ours. That is where everything happens. 'The Spirit of the Rockies' — a ghost that chose to show itself.
I — Original Work
"Ghost of the Rockies"
Original work sold — Private Collection
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II — Canvas Editions
Numbered art print, hand-signed by the artist. On 375 gsm matte canvas. Comes with a certificate of authenticity and the artist's double signature.
Shipping: rolled in a tube or framed ready to hang.
