Pam Martins lives and works in Devon, UK.  She is a talented artist who works full time, painting in watercolours, oils and pastels.  Her subjects vary from landscapes, flower painting and people to animal studies.  For many years Pam has specialised in painting cats and dogs and she is one of the founder members of the Society of Feline Artists (S.O.F.A). She accepts commissioned work for animal portraits and other subjects such as bridal bouquets.

Here is Pam working on a painting in her studio closely supervised by George and Minnie.

Pam trained at the Brighton College of Art and has exhibited her work in several local Galleries and at the Llewellyn Alexander Gallery in London, the London Mall Gallery, the Clifton Gallery in Bristol, and also holds her own ‘one man’ exhibition annually at the Thurlestone Hotel, Devon. 

Pam has illustrated several books and is the author and illustrator of ‘A Brush With Cats’ published by Souvenir Press, London.  The Medici Society has printed many Greetings Cards and Calendars from Pam’s original paintings.

Devon is a stunningly beautiful part of the world to live and work and Pam finds endless inspiration in its coasts and moorlands and rolling fertile hills. Pam has negative buoyancy and gets seasick at the sight of a boat.  She is married to a sailor.  

However inspiring the landscape it is the cats who share her life and those of her friends who are the much-loved subjects of most of Pam’s paintings. Every cat has its own story, some more exotic than others, but all are interesting.

This is George.  George had presence.  He was a cat to be reckoned with.  He lived 12 glorious years lording it over the back garden, shadow-boxing in the hall and taking no nonsense at all from Minnie.  Even a near-fatal encounter with a car didn’t slow him down much, although it left him with a crushed back leg and an ignominious few weeks dragging an enormous white bandage around.  Sadly his second encounter with a vehicle was his last and his presence in the back garden is now marked with a beautiful slate plaque.  George as the son of a close friend’s cat, Suky.  Muffin, who features in the Cat’s Gallery, is his brother.

This is Minnie.  She’s 14 now and just as fluffy and feminine as ever. Of course she is highly pedigreed, a Brown Tabby Persian from the Grand Champion bloodline Eldarby Chantilly Lace. Her father (Lysander) and mother (Atlanta) are both descended from Champions and Grand Champions. She has come down somewhat in the world but bears up remarkably well under the strain.  Her humans are well trained and she wants for nothing even if she has to put up with a ruffian of a cat companion. She is particularly proud of her whiskers which are quite superb and very expressive.  She misses George sometimes.

This is Hugo.  He is quite possibly the luckiest cat this side of Ancient Egypt. Hugo was born in Mombasa, Kenya, the son of a semi-wild alley cat, Kitzy, and an unknown gentleman caller. He and his brother Henry were taken to Nairobi as kittens where they lived for three years surviving such hazards as an invasion of safari ants and pursuit by troops of monkeys. But cities anywhere are dangerous places and one day Henry went out and never came home.  An early calcium deficiency left Hugo a little stocky and stout, but his heart is great and his human couldn’t leave him behind when she returned to England.  So he was loaded into a crate and on to a plane and flown to 6 months quarantine in Taunton.  When he was released he was brought, protesting mildly, to his new English home. 

The first snowfall was a challenge, but Hugo soon got the hang of it and now there is little about this new country that surprises him. He takes no nonsense at all from Minnie and he has learned the local lingo well enough to keep the back garden free from interlopers.

Minnie and Hugo have both posed on many occasions for Pam and at least two paintings of each of them can be seen in the Cats Gallery.