Palmore, Where Elegance Meets Fear, 22.96
Tom Palmore (b.1945). Where Elegance Meets Fear, 1996. Acrylic on canvas, 46 x 46 inches. Gift of Edward R. Bazinet Foundation. 22.96
Tom Palmore is known for his photorealistic paintings of animals, often on large-scale canvases. He sometimes includes unexpected backgrounds or notes of whimsy, but his subjects always command more attention than their settings.
In the case of our painting, he has depicted a mountain lion – a creature who’s both elegant and, to its prey, feared, as the title suggests. The cat takes up about 80 percent of the composition overtaking the foreground. The colors of its coat are echoed in the snow-covered sandstone cliffs behind the animal, and complemented by the cornflower blue and dark, shadowy foreground. Palmore has described the eyes as the most important part of a portrait – human or animal: “…an animal doesn’t come to life …until the eyes are just right.” Here, you almost can’t look away. The mountain lion has a bead on you, and you aren’t sure of its intentions. It is one of few oil paintings that is glazed – or covered in a Plexiglass topper. Why? So many visitors were “petting” the cat!
