Tom Palmore: From a Sordid Past to an Extraordinary Career

"Trick Rider" by Tom Palmore

By Linda Perala-Hunt

Palmore is an animal advocate, humorist and painter extraordinaire.  Tom has a unique sense of humor, a great respect for the animal kingdom, and an uncanny way of bringing the two together to engage the viewer in a very fascinating form of wildlife art.  He has blended his unique imagination and talent to portray animals with integrity.

"Flying Bob"

He tends to place animals in unusual settings to make us look more closely at the animal, bird, reptile and the environment itself.  He has a strong calling to represent the animals is such a way that we stop, look and listen.

"Cowgirl" by Tom Palmore

Call him witty, silly or absurd his technique is masterful and painstakingly rendered presenting images of animals  with a message.  Palmore pays close attention to details and his style of realism captivates the viewer.

Tom Palmore’s book “Earthlings”  is a retrospective of his work and an honest portrayal of his sordid past. Take a look at the gallery copy. Or watch this video with Tom talking about the book.

Even when I put an animal in a natural setting, I try to make it my own through unusual lighting, unique compositions, or atypical points of view,” he says. “The worst thing, in my opinion, is when an artist copies someone else. There are a handful of original wildlife artists and the rest are members of the ‘elk in the meadow’ or ‘moose in the water’ schools. We are all influenced by society and by history, but you have to take those examples, put them through your own filter and make them your own.

"Baby Billy" by Tom Palmore

His work has been collected by numerous corporate collections and is included in such prominent public collections as the Smithsonian Institution, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Brooklyn Museum, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Denver Art Museum, the New Orleans Museum of Art, the National Museum of Wildlife Art, the Saint Louis Museum of Art and the New Mexico Museum of Art.

"Cactus Flower" by Tom Palmore.

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