So this is a decoration of a letter written to a friend who had just come back from kayaking down south in Georgia, hence the sandy beach stamp; on the other hand, we just had our first snow, so snowdrops seemed appropriate.

paper ephemera, hanko (ink) and watercolour sketches on envelope back; 4-5/8 x 6-7/8"; 120 x 175mm (approx); assembled 11nov25; photographed sony A7c 90mm macro, 11nov25, f/2.8, ev 0, 1/100s, ISO 160, WB: cloudy; squared up, lightened and scaled to 4000 pixels in gimp

I did make some effort to date the snowdrop sketch, but it's part of a large series of practise pieces I didn't bother to sign or date, so all I can say for sure is that I've made them sometime in the last 5 years, probably 2–3 years ago. The smaller watercolour doodle, which is probably to clean up the dirty yellow pan as much as anything else, had to my eyes a look of seaweed, so that seemed appropriate—that I did on 02nov25; besides it co-ordinated so nicely with the vintage lined paper left over from the previous project.

Originally, this collage was very simple, with just the 2 watercolours, blue lined paper, and beach stamp, and was, honestly, more effective, as the brighter colours of secondary focal points (the stamps in particular) overpower the delicate snowdrop drawing. Oh well, live and learn. Since it was already overworked, I added the tiny bit of topo map, since this same friend also does a lot of hiking as well.

Despite its flaws, I still like the piece, and hope my friend will enjoy it too.

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