Canyon Spirit Sculpture

Click to hear an interview with Artist Jim Gilmore

With this bronze cougar sculpture, Colorado artist Jim Gilmore wanted to depict the way the big cats silently stalk their prey, in this case carefully creeping down a tree branch with eyes locked onto its target. “I wanted the anatomy of the cat’s tensed muscles and the balance of its tail to be dead-on. It’s a great feeling when you hit something just right,” Gilmore said. As a kid growing up on a cattle ranch in southern Colorado, Gilmore took to drawing, painting and later tooling leather. When he was a teenager, Gilmore’s father bought him an old wooden narrow gauge boxcar and set it up as an art studio. Following his father’s passing, Gilmore took over the ranch where he still lives and brings his wildlife works to life.