Tule Basket, Flycatcher, and Wild Plums

I paint western and wildlife and have a great interest in birds and Native American life. I've combined both into this oil painting of a tribal Tule Basket, and an indigenous Flycatcher perched on it. I take my own photographs of the wild foods available in tribal life, and wild plums were always abundant. The lighting and shadow on all figures is dramatic; moving the eye around the scene to suddenly discover the fly on the plum as well as the one watched by the flycatcher.