Larry Eifert – Straight ahead with the same old thing.
I like to think to myself as a third generation naturalist and fifth-generation social activist. Some of that might be a stretch, but it gives me guidance never-the-less. I sometimes imagine the billions of choices I could have had for parents, and always feel fortunate I happened along this specific road this time around.
Entirely because of Virginia and Herman, I was exposed to nature and a pencil before I could walk. After nearly four thousand paintings later (to the best of my counting ability), I still get a real charge from creating art about nature. The year 2016 could probably be considered my 50th anniversary of making a living as an artist.
Quick Chronology of a Life with Nature and Art.
Born in 1946 in between both of my parents working full time at making art, music, teaching, writing and learning. Both parents always made sure a sketchpad was available.
1958: At 12, wins national art contest, trip to New York.
1965: At 19, first major art fair in Springfield Illinois. Draft board buys one of my paintings for its office.
1966: First interpretive art exhibit at Lincoln Gardens Nature Center, Illinois.
1967: Opens first art gallery in Waubaushene Ontario Canada making wood, pottery and watercolors.
1970: Opens first art show on the West Coast, Vancouver Island, Canada.
1972: Opens first art gallery in U.S. at New Salem State Park, Springfield Illinois.
1973: First art gallery in California opens in Ferndale near the coastal redwoods.
1974: First Kinetic Sculpture Race entry on national TV in Ferndale.
1975 Hikes 125 miles along the John Muir Trail.
1976: Helps develop first Cross-country Kinetic Sculpture Race in Ferndale, opens Eifert Gallery there and goes on to sell over 2,000 original paintings from this one store. One solo show in Eureka occurred in 1976, but not a single show for Eifert was mounted in the Eifert Gallery.
1978: Starts painting for parks with commission at Redwood National Park and Humboldt Redwoods State Park. Eventually, Eifert paints and installs over 300 exhibits and waysides from the Bay Area to the Oregon border.
1980: Buys first big wooden boat, 40′ Kettenburg sloop and sails it from LA to Eureka to begin restoration. Eventually Larry and October make it to Alaska.
1982: Major commissions for Yosemite, Mt Rainier and others begin. This expands to installations in Joshua Tree, Badlands, Capitol Reef and Bryce Canyon National Parks through the next 20 years.
1993: Moves to Port Townsend, WA and with Nancy, lives aboard the second big boat, a 1940 Monk powerboat. National commissions expand into main stream public murals.
2000: Buys and restores historic sloop Sea Witch.
2004: Eiferts sail their 50′ Cheoy Lee ketch down Baja into the Sea of Cortez. Exploring nature and making art, it’s all the same.
2012: Begins backpacking again as a way to rekindle wilderness painting.
By 2015, it’s estimated Eifert has painted and sold over 5,000 original paintings or America’s parks and refuges.
2022: Paints 35′ x 17′ mural of over 100 Indians and nature at San Juan Islands National Historical Park, Friday Harbor, WA.
2023: Finishes 17 paintings for Everglades National Park, Florida.
By 2015 we believe we can state that no artist has ever painted more art for America’s parks, refuges and preserves than Larry Eifert.
I guess this was not an accident!
Springfield Illinois, where my mother was author, photographer and illustrator of 20 books. She was also editor of a museum nature magazine for 36 years. Her work is still in print after 50 years – and, like me, she thought nothing of traveling 5,000 miles on various river workboats for book research – or hiring a fishing boat to get us to remote refuge islands off the Gaspe Peninsula in Quebec Canada. My dad was influential too. As education curator for the Illinois State Museum with a double-masters in ecology and English, he shepherded thousands of kids (and me, too) through the museum. He also instilled in me a reverence for all life. As an Army GI in WW2, he never carried a gun, although he was shot at by snipers he could clearly see in the hills above the camp in New Caladonia. “Shoot a gun, you’re out of the family,” I remember hearing as I was growing up. From those pretty rarefied beginnings, I gained early mentoring from both parents and museum staff – and never really looked back. Mine is a continuing passion instilled from many sources, from the boyhood time spent at, say, Rachel Carson’s home in Maine, to the museum babysitters who said “Here – draw this giraffe and don’t bug us. We’ve got work to do.” To me, life was all about nature and painting it – it’s my job. See Virginia’s website here.
After coming to the Pacific Northwest in 1972 in search of “rainy forests and wind-swept beaches,” I opened the Eifert Gallery in Ferndale California, and during the 1980’s and early 90’s I exhibited both my own work and that of many other artists. It was here that I learned about painting nature in national parks. Now, I can say I have more work in America’s National Parks and refuges than any other artist.
Today, Nancy (an artist in her own right) and I live in Port Townsend, Washington near Olympic National Park and still travel, sail, hike and paint. And paint, and paint. A lot!
Printable bios and other stuff
Click here for the studio page.
Click here for Nancy’s website at nancycherryeifert.com