This painting is for sale, so drop me a note at larryeifert@gmail.com if you’re interested. Click the image and it should enlarge in your browser.
This is an original acrylic painting on canvas, 18″ x 24″. A Certificate of Authentication is included. Outside dimensions with the frame is about 25″ x 31″ The framed painting is $1300. Frame options are available. Shipping is a bit extra, but we have good crates ready to go. This frame is one influenced by the Taos School solid wood frames that I’ve been using recently. Really suits the painting and brings it back to the 1940’s.
This painting was influenced by the red-breasted nuthatch family that lives next to the studio, the most friendly bunch of birds I know. When I was building the design of this new painting, I remembered that they tend to bring fir resin to plaster a white ring around the nest cavity hole, ensuring no predictors can make it past the sticky gate. I did a video of my process, and also tell this story in my new YouTube Video, seen here with the others I’ve created.
Here’s the original concept sketch. It shows the tree hole, parents gathered around tending to the ‘kids’. The design stayed pretty much the same to completion, which is often the case. What initially feels right to me, stays put in my mind. At this stage, I don’t think I remembered the pitch hole idea. That happened as the painting proceeded.
My models right outside our dining room window. Parents trying to teach the kids how to do it. 
The story of birds using fir pitch on the nest entrance is well-known and even studied. I go into this in my video on my channel here.
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Larry Eifert
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