Cougar in the Snow

The cougar is, of course, one of the few great hunters left among the ranks of North American wildlife. The cougar is now extinct in most of its original range, but in some areas, particularly in the West, it is doing quite well.

Unlike the wolf, the cougar is a lone hunter. It approaches its prey with stealth and often attacks from ambush. I imagined this scene somewhere in the Rocky Mountains. The cougar has been following its quarry, a mule deer which has now moved into the open.

The hunter has lain down, not to rest, but to consider the situation with great intensity.
In this painting I have put the cougar's face in the shadows and have played up the paw which it uses for bringing down its prey. I have tried to increase the nervous intensity of the mood by emphasizing the snow-covered twigs, creating scratchy, almost electric imagery. The curving twigs symbolize the cougar's sheathed claws.