Larry Zach Wildlife Art

"Titmouse Pair features a common but often overlooked songbird, the tufted titmouse. The tufted titmouse is a common woodland bird a little larger than the chickadees and nuthatches with which it frequently joins at bird feeders. Sunflower seeds provided a favorite food when available, as does suet. In recent years it has been expanding its range into the Northeast and upper Midwest. They male and female, as you can see, are very similar in appearance. In Titmouse Pair, I chose to compliment the subtle beauty of titmice with dried wild sunflowers, which, in this case, provide a convenient resting place. Since I frequently paint fall and winter scenes in the spring or summer, I keep a supply of dried grasses, weeds and other props in my studio. These came in handy again when I reworked ‘Titmouse Pair’ since the wild sunflowers at that time were still in full bloom and I needed the dried winter heads. I frequently see titmice from my tree stands while bowhunting. They seem to have a lot of the same behavior patterns as chickadees and never seem very pleased to discover a rather large camo clad creature up in a tree."

- Larry