Jonathan Payne
The Paw Print
I cannot pretend to be anything other than completely impressed by the Jim Gilmore Retrospective. Walking into the Hatfield Gallery the first sculpture I saw was of a mountain lion stretched out, leaping from the ground as its forepaw grazes the wing of a hawk.
This piece was entitled “On a Wing and a Prayer” and showed Jim Gilmore’s incredible command over motion in sculpture. Creating a scene of so much action in bronze was impressive. The mountain lion had only one paw on the ground and the hawk was suspended above the ground by the cat’s forepaw on its wing.
I had never thought that bronze could look so weightless. Jim Gilmore is a Colorado, self-taught artist, whose art captures the raw beauty, peacefulness, and fury of the stark western wilderness. His statement on his website says, “In my art, I strive to share with others the love and respect I have for nature and the cowboy lifestyle. Living on our cattle ranch in the Rocky Mountains, I have had many extraordinary experiences in my life. Memories of an elk’s bugle echoing through a canyon, two black bear cubs exploring a new world or spending time packing in the high country of Colorado with horses are some of the many events that inspire my work.”
That sentiment surely comes across in the sculptures. Sculptures like “A Wreck in the Making,” of a cowboy leading a mule up a narrow mountain pass from the saddle of a frightened horse resting alongside peaceful scenes of big horned sheep standing atop cliffs like monarchs of the rugged land. It is beautiful art clearly made by someone who has spent their life in nature and come to understand it intimately. Each sculpture is solid bronze. They start as clay models that are then used to create a mold for the bronze. Then the sculptures are cast from those molds.
Considering this extensive process I was beyond impressed at the incredible detail of each sculpture. I could easily read the fear and shock on the face of a canoeing cowboy as he has a close encounter with a black bear, but I could just as easily read the disappointment of a fox looking after the escaping bird evidenced only by the feathers at the fox’s feet.
Texture was also one of the most impressive aspects of the sculptures. The bronze water in his streams actually looks fluid as it splashes around rocks and up the legs of a bear, and there is a clear transition from the sodden, hanging fur to the dry, fluffier fur on the bear itself. Looking at sculptures I found that I could actually recognize the bracken of forest floors or the scree of high mountain peaks. Sculptures of cowboys and horses tended to be less shined giving the impression of dustiness.
Wildlife scenes were shinier and smoother, giving the impression of lighting from great open planes or deep green forests. He further shows a range of color values that I did not even know was possible in sculpture. He shined some bronze on a sculpture to make it appear lighter than other parts of the sculpture. For example, the light marks on an antelope’s chest and stomach clearly stood out from the darker pelt in other places. Also by discoloring the bronze, the distinctive rainbow spots along the side of a trout could be seen clearly on another sculpture. His command over composition is also impressive. He uses implied lines particularly well.
He can suggest extreme action using a line as in the mountain lion reaching for the hawk in “On a Wing and a Prayer” or just as easily suggest fluid playfulness as in the intertwined swimming otters in the sculpture “Chasing a rainbow.”
But perhaps my favorite peace brought all these components beautifully together. “Too Tired to Fish” shows a scene of a mother bear and two cubs lounging on a rock over a stream.
The way the cubs lean against their mother on either side creates a triangle that is outlined by the rock. This triangle creates a shape that helps suggest the movement of the stream. The texture of the water suggests a soft, burbling stream that adds to the relaxed feeling of the whole sculpture.
By shining some of the bears’ fur and the top of the rock, Gilmore makes it appear to be a hot summer midday, which explains why the bears are resting. Sparing no detail, beneath the shelf of the rock, sheltering in the shade, are a couple of trout, with mouths gaping open as they try to catch food carried to them by the stream.
The distinctive pattern on the fish was still visible, even in their reduced scale. The details of this sculpture instantly struck me, from the artistic aesthetic to the care pored over representing a realistic scene. It was a scene that could not have been created by anyone other than an avid outdoorsman and a gifted artist.
I am definitely now a fan of Jim Gilmore’s work. As an amateur outdoorsman and lover of the wilderness myself, I connected instantly with the sculptures. Jim Gilmore concludes his statement with, “I hope having my work in your home or office will bring a bit of nature back into your life, as well as a desire to protect our natural environment and Western way of life.”
It is certainly a sentiment I can agree with. I cannot imagine any other reaction to Gilmore’s work than wonder at the impressive scenes of nature that he has captured in bronze, and a desire to experience the place that they are taken from.
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