I enjoy the challenge of painting the elegant leopard. Good fortune has allowed me to observe these elusive cats in various settings and behaviors during my travels. One morning I opened the canvas tent flap, glanced down, and saw leopard tracks! Our campsite and semi-open thatched roof hut were on the beach of Lake Tanganyika, the longest lake in Africa, surrounded by pristine rainforest. Imagine a leopard within a few yards of where we slept! As an artist, I wondered about the leopard who visited our camp, slipping silently across a white sand beach and returning to the security of the giant trees under the moonlight.