This note is second in a series of western wildflowers that started with one featuring Nuttall's larkspur. I picked this flower, Bitter Dogbane, Apocynum androcaemifolium, to be a bit easier to draw. —As I remarked in the letter, not all dogbane has flowers this bright—some of the photos looked closer to being white with pink streaks, like our local spring beauties—but they evidently can be.^[1] So I was definitely using some of those luscious pinks full-strength.

watercolour, microns (ink) and graphite on acid free paper, 9x12 inches, folded into quarters. 30-31 aug, photographed 31aug, 1/60sec, f1.7 panasonic LX100; some image editing (sharpening, squaring up, and brightening.)

Because the letter to go with the picture was so boring, I fancied it up a bit with additional doodling, not, in my opinion, entirely successfully.

Nevertheless I'm reasonably happy with the piece, and drawing the petals twisted over one another in the bud was fun.

Unless otherwise noted, text, image and objects depicted therein copyright 1996--present sylvus tarn.