“Tending their graineries”.  I haven’t painted these interesting birds in years, and a private commission presented an opportunity to that just that. I was first made aware of these crazy guys when I was teaching painting at the Yosemite Association back in the early 80’s. A big deal for me, I was in the old historic railroad building at El Portal to meet the Executive Director and try to make a decent impression. He had a marvelous second story office, old wood paneling, a big railroad desk, casement windows. In the middle of the conversation, he suddenly got up and started pounding on the walls, first one then another. No explanation and he didn’t even break up a sentence. Later I found out it was acorn woodpeckers trying to store nuts in the knotholes, probably been doing it a hundred years! And I’ve been in love with these clown-faced birds since.

And then the buyer, who has been trying to get another original painting from me since, he says, 1990. What took so long I’m  not sure, but I’m glad to help out. Yes, these birds actually drill holes in dead snags and dry their acorns, hundreds of them and often in drilled rows like sapsuckers do as well. Yaka, yaka, yaka. Once heard, never forgotten.

Yes, I do private commissions on occasion. If you’re interested, just let me know, and be patient (but not 30 years).

Thanks for reading my stuff this week.
Larry Eifert

Here’s the blog on the web. And here’s my Facebook fan page. I post lots of other stuff there.

Click here to go to our main website – with jigsaw puzzles, prints, interpretive portfolios and lots of other stuff.

Nancy’s web portfolio of stunning photography

And here to go to Virginia Eifert’s website. Her books are now becoming available as Amazon Kindle books.