Mountain Cougar

About Mountain Cougar

This contemporary painting of a cougar is by the Metis artist Rick Rivet.

In his powerful expressionist paintings, Rick Rivet pays homage to his indigenous roots and his early life in the far north. This portrait of a mountain cougar commands attention as its piercing green eyes appear to be looking directly at the viewer. Rivet’ s style is distinctive—a unique blend of dream-like imagery that reflects his shamanistic heritage and modernist art forms. Rivet counts among his early influences the expressionist work of modernist painters Rauschenberg, Rothko, and Turner. The colour palette of this piece evokes the north—the rich earthy brown and blood red of the cougar’s head flecked with white stands out against the layered washes of icy blue and white of the wintry landscape. One of a series.

“I think a lot of my work stems from growing up in the Arctic and growing up on the land, being there right in the landscape all the time, when you’re out playing or just living in a fishing camp or on a trap line.” Rick Rivet

“His work is highly expressive, with mark-making techniques that range from bold slashes to slowly graduated fields of thick colour. Through it all are Rivet’s ruminations on nature, memory, metaphysics and indigenous mythologies.” Portia Priegert

Richard James Rivet was born in Aklavik in the Northwest Territories. He grew up on the land and his family lived by trapping, hunting and fishing. Rivet has four degrees from three universities. He completed his MFA at the U. of Saskatchewan in 1989 and began creating art full time. Rivet has been the recipient of more than twenty awards, scholarships and bursaries including a Fellowship from the Eiteljorg Museum in Indianapolis, and the Andy Warhol Foundation Fellowship Residency Program for the Heard Museum in Phoenix. His work is exhibited internationally and is held in private, corporate, and public collections in both Canada and the US.