“Barn Kat,” a pen and ink drawing by retired middle school teacher Sarah Schaeffer of Dodge City, Kan., is the Best of Show – Professional winner of the 2026 Art is Ageless® calendar. This winning entry took Sarah about 10 days to finish, and she changed course during the process.
“When I started it was only going to be black and white. And the original plan was that I was going to draw the whole cat. But I got to looking at those beautiful amber eyes and thought I needed to do those in color. That’s when the color pencil came out. And to accent the eyes, I thought I’d just do the face so that the eyes were the focal point.”
See all of the inspiring works of art from this year’s competition at artisageless.org.
