This is a somewhat atypical scene for Helen Kalvak, who is so often associated with shamanic imagery, and it feels all the more intimate for that. The composition is built on a simple triangle of attention. Two adult birds lean inward, beaks nearly meeting, and the small blue worm becomes the point of exchange that pulls the eye to the centre. Below, the chick rises from a warm yellow nest, wings lifted in eager anticipation, as if the whole body is eagerly asking to be fed.

Aida Aivek’s delicate stencilling keeps the plumage soft and downy, with warm neutrals that read like feathers warmed by sun. Cyan accents in the food and the shapes held under the talons of the left bird add a fresh, bright note, turning care and provision into colour. Lovely.