Ocracoke Cat

While vacationing on  Ocracoke Island, I would go out on the screened-in porch of our rental home and sip coffee while watching the sun come up.  I was soon accompanied by a little, black furry companion each day, whom I obliged with tuna for her friendship.  One morning she struck this pose in her the light with the porch behind her, and I quickly grabbed a camera to capture the moment.

     This piece won first place at North Carolina's Amateur Graphics Division at the NC State Fair in 2000, thus starting my series of cat portraits that soon followed.  A pastel portrait of my niece won first place.   It was that year that I was told that I probably wasn't an amateur any more!