Drought Tolerant III is the largest in a series of paintings on wood panels about the adaptability and resiliency of native plants in their natural ecosystems. Working from photos of a prickly pear cactus during a super bloom in Big Bend, I've applied color and forms to evoke its simple beauty. These paintings include the delicate flowers' pinks and yellows, surrounded by the nopales hue of dominant green tinged with iridescent violet. The circular grain lines of the birch panel I selected to paint on calls to mind areoles that grow protective spines.