Last summer as I walked out my back door and headed across the yard to my wonderful little studio I was hit with a heady rich sweet perfume that pulled me up short and demanded my attention. Its source was the patch of milkweeds that I grow every year to lure Monarch butterflies to my yard. Milkweed is one of their favorite food. This painting was my attempt to capture part of the budding and flowering of these wonderful, useful weeds. I’m sure I will revisit painting these plants because of the way they captured my olfactory attention every day, at least as long as the flowering lasts. I thank them for the butterflies too.