'This painting is based on an encounter that I experienced while on a dugout safari with my wife in the Jau area of the Okavango. The sighting was brief but burnt into my memory. We were walking back to camp very late in the afternoon after having spent the whole day wandering about the large island we were camped on, looking for sitatunga signs. I saw the leopard as we turned a bend in the path that led us to where we camped in a dense clump of thorn brush. The late evening light illuminated it dramatically. I vividly remember the cold stare of the leopard - which was a big male. A second later it was gone, leaving us with an enduring impression, and wondering where it would be going that night (it was a small island!)

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