Richard Murray Oil Painting Cougar Mountain Lion Western Art Wildlife Big Cats

Williams Gallery West  - Fine Art - California Artists - Painting - Plein Air  - Oil, Acrylic, Watercolor

 Richard Murray

"Cougar"

 circa 1990

Oil on Board - Gold Frame

From a California private collection. 

Purchased from Zantmann Art Galleries, Carmel in 1995

Signed in lower right corner. "Murray"

Signed on back "Richard Murray - COUGAR - Z95-2" along with other identifying stickers and labels.

unframed dimensions: approx 24" high x 18" wide 

framed dimensions - approx 30" high x 26" wide

Labeled and dated on back along with a short biography

Very Good Condition - Clean and Bright.  

Very minor wear to frame from age and display.

Richard Murray was born in Salt Lake City, Utah, and attended The University of Utah where he majored in fine art.  His work includes portraiture, figurative painting and landscape, but it is his paintings of animals that have won him the most acclaim.  The range of animals he chooses to portray is wide, including domestic animals ( cows, horses, dogs, and roosters ) and wild animals ( mountain lions, grizzly bear, elk, and even zebra ).

Murray's dream of becoming a rancher inspired him to paint animals. He researches his subjects carefully, visiting zoos, ranches and wildlife sanctuaries to study his subjects. 

Murray combines an impressionistic style with careful attention to detail and proportion.  The bold simplicity of the artist's compositions and the dramatic way he lights his subjects distinguishes his work. 

The artist states; "These animals are the closest I've come to being content with my own style. I want to portray the basic essence of these animals, not the stereotypes men impose on them. I strive to pay reverence to each animal's uniqueness." 

Murray's paintings are widely collected. His work has been featured in Southwest Art magazine and is included in the permanent collection of the National Museum of Wildlife Art.

 

from Wikipedia  - The cougar (Puma concolor), also known as puma, mountain lion, mountain cat, catamount or panther, depending on the region, is a mammal of the family Felidae, native to the Americas. This large, solitary cat has the greatest range of any large wild terrestrial mammal in the Western Hemisphere, extending from Yukon in Canada to the southern Andes of South America. 

An adaptable, generalist species, the cougar is found in every major American habitat type. It is the second heaviest cat in the Western Hemisphere, after the jaguar. Although large, the cougar is most closely related to smaller felines and is closer genetically to the domestic cat than to true lions. A capable stalk-and-ambush predator, the cougar pursues a wide variety of prey. Primary food sources include ungulates such as deer, elk, moose, and bighorn sheep, as well as domestic cattle, horses and sheep, particularly in the northern part of its range.

 It will also hunt species as small as insects and rodents. This cat prefers habitats with dense underbrush and rocky areas for stalking, but it can also live in open areas. The cougar is territorial and persists at low population densities. Individual territory sizes depend on terrain, vegetation, and abundance of prey. While it is a large predator, it is not always the dominant species in its range, as when it competes for prey with other predators such as the jaguar, grey wolf, American Black Bear, and the grizzly bear. It is a reclusive cat and usually avoids people. Attacks on humans remain fairly rare, despite a recent increase in frequency.

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