2026-8-26 Lillian Ridge Divide

A new oil on canvas, 24″x 18″- with the paint still wet. With this frame, outside measurements are about 30″x 24″. https://www.etsy.com/listing/4564405586/lillian-ridge-divide-larry-eifert

This was painted with those painters whose work I love from a century ago. It’s not a fictional place – just a bit of pushing reality around a little. I solo day-hiked here two weeks ago and it definitely made an impression on me. How could it not? The layers and layers of subalpine fir, avalanche chutes and knife ridge lines were just so paintable. I could paint these places every day until I croak.

The scene before me was on Lilian Ridge in Olympic National Park, with Lilian Creek in the valley far below. As I walked along here, two Columbian black-tail deer showed up to question my right to be here. A painterly experience.

My heroes that have painted these places have remained constant through the years. I still enjoy seeing paintings by Albert Bierstadt, Gunnar Widforss and Carl Rungius. This painting can be traced to those guys, especially Rungius, who painted in Banff until he died at age 90. I’ve always thought of wilderness painting as an old-man’s game, mainly because there isn’t a swift and sure path to understanding how to do it. If you’re a young painter, it’s easy to get up there. Not so easy to understand how to paint it when you get there. How to paint luminous depth of huge landscapes crammed onto a small piece of linen cloth? It’s not easy. Maybe I’m getting there, maybe I’ll do some more.

Curious about the exact location of this, my reference place in Olympic National Park for this painting? It’s just 30 air miles from my studio in Port Townsend, WA.