Ocelot 1973

LeRoy Neiman made this artwork, "Ocelot," with vibrant strokes of oil paint, conjuring the animal’s presence through pure energy. It looks like he was thinking about immediacy. Imagine him, brush in hand, trying to capture not just the cat's appearance, but its essence. The way it moves. The colours are dappled, like sunlight filtering through leaves, merging the ocelot with its habitat. It's a symphony of yellows, greens, and blues. Each dab of paint seems intuitively placed, building up a mosaic of textures and tones. It’s a cousin to the works of someone like Franz Marc, another artist who loved animals. I can imagine Neiman thinking about the animal’s power, its grace, and the way it blends with the world around it. What does it mean to show the life force of this beautiful creature? Ultimately, painting is a conversation across time. Artists riff off one another, find new ways of seeing, and remind us that there’s always more than one way to look at the world.