All posts by Wilderness Walker

New Painting Post

Afternoon Light

Afternoon-Light

A little water moment beside this spring trail we took the other day. The early spring afternoon light is still low enough to really make for sweet romantic scenes. Just give me some falling water, a bit of sunlight and I’ll get a painting together to remember it by. It’s the way the spray illuminates like this that I just love to figure out, and the color shifts on the water at the fall’s lip and lower ripples. They show blue sky reflection on the ripple’s top, reflection of the sunlight on the trailing edge, forest darkness on forward side. Figuring all this out is constant painterly fun for me. It’s not looking at something, but actually ‘seeing’ it.

Afternoon-Light-framed

This ORIGINAL painting is acrylic on board, 6″ x 9″ and $145 framed. Outside edge of the frame is about 12″ x 15″.
This custom frame has a triple liner and glass. Shipping adds just a bit more depending on your zone. This is the original painting, NOT a print.
Email us for details.

Thanks for reading this week. Send this to someone who might appreciate what I’m painting and tell them to sign up. I’m trying to expand my list. An email will work.
Larry Eifert

Here’s the blog on the web.And here’s my Facebook fan page. I post lots of other stuff there.

Click here to go to our main website – with jigsaw puzzles, prints, interpretive portfolios and lots of other stuff.

Nancy’s web portfolio of beautiful photographs

And Click here to go to Virginia Eifert’s website. Her books are now becoming available as Amazon Kindle books.

New Painting Post

That Little Spot Beside the Trail

Spot-Beside-the-Trail

A little Olympic Mountains water study today. We saw this nice little place the other day as we were on the Spruce Railroad Trail, a hike that will soon change from an old meandering path beside Lake Crescent to a wide ADA-compliant highway, straight as an arrow with graded shoulders – so I wanted to paint something to remember it.  (And don’t get me wrong about providing a great experience for folks not quite as ambulatory as we are – it may be us on there someday.) Nancy was photographing this little place, too, and I liked the way the water spilled down each section of rock, each different, each the same. All else was covered with moss, lichens and ferns making it feel, well, wet. Spring was unfolding quickly here, with coltsfoot coming on fast.

This ORIGINAL painting is acrylic on board, 6″ x 9″ and $145 framed. Outside edge of the frame is about 12″ x 15″.
This custom frame has a triple liner and glass. Shipping adds just a bit more depending on your zone. This is the original painting, NOT a print.
Email us for details.

Twin-Falls

And here’s Nancy’s effort at the same place. She went for the entire enchilada while I settled for just a bite. Photo by Nancy Cherry Eifert.

Thanks for reading this week.
Larry Eifert

Here’s the blog on the web.And here’s my Facebook fan page. I post lots of other stuff there.

Click here to go to our main website – with jigsaw puzzles, prints, interpretive portfolios and lots of other stuff.

Nancy’s web portfolio of beautiful photographs

And Click here to go to Virginia Eifert’s website. Her books are now becoming available as Amazon Kindle books.

New Painting Post

Hooded Merganser study

2015-3-Hooded-Margansers

“Stick it on the paper, hard and fast, as fast as your brain can move the pencil and brush. Don’t think about this, just do it!”

Today, a little watercolor that isn’t for sale, but is part of another project – and I liked it enough to show it around. If art is simply reflecting life, this little male Hooded Merganser could have been painted several times this past month. We’ve been seeing several courting pairs in the Port Townsend Boat Haven marina on hikes through town, and we watch as each male is circling, rearing back, showing off his Mohawk to a potential lady-love. Later, they’ll find a nest hole up one of our local wilderness rivers like the Dungeness and set up house.

Not so many lines, a dash of color, and you get a Hooded Merganser.

Thanks for reading this week. Send this to someone who might appreciate what I’m painting and tell them to sign up. I’m trying to expand my list. An email will work.
Larry Eifert

Here’s the blog on the web.And here’s my Facebook fan page. I post lots of other stuff there.

Click here to go to our main website – with jigsaw puzzles, prints, interpretive portfolios and lots of other stuff.

Nancy’s web portfolio of beautiful photographs

And Click here to go to Virginia Eifert’s website. Her books are now becoming available as Amazon Kindle books.

New Published Story

A Nice Published Collaboration with Nancy

2015-1-Lady-Washington

Click on the image – it gets a lot bigger.

I’m now teaming up with Nancy and her photography for a new 48 North magazine story page. This is the Seattle sailing magazine I write for with my own work, but now we’ve turned it into a bit of a game with her fine photography and a second page. She tosses me a photo, I make up the rest – weave a tale about wooden boats,  their history, legacy and how they work. For those who know, I have a very long history of sailing old wooden boats – built one when I was 12, sailed to Alaska and later Mexico, pounded more caulk and spread more varnish than I care to think about.

This is the first issue for January 2015. And here’s the text:

Lots of boaty stuff was, and still is, not just learned from a book, or Google, or even at school. For centuries, boats were built by guys who knew what worked and passed it down to the next shipwright. It seems a lost art, but it’s not, and this page is an attempt to toss out some wooden boat knowledge about our Northwest sailing heritage. So, here’s a bit of what you might need to know beyond the names of the two dinky sails most of us have. Lady Washington, launched in 1989 and home ported in Aberdeen, Washington, is Washington State’s official tall ship. For most small-boat sailors, her rigging looks like a rat’s nest of tangles, her sails a white laundry line, but nothing is there that is without a purpose – every line, sail and stick evolved because it worked – and made the ship go.

Take those six sails in the photo. Most are named for what they’re attached to. From bow to stern, the Fore Topmast Staysail (that little jib in the bow) is named because it’s attached to the forward topmast. Staysails are really jibs and help the ship tack up into the wind. Easy? The foremast also has a Top Gallant Sail flying on top (makes sense) then a Top Sail below that. Not flying in the photo, the bottom sail is the Fore Main (like your boat). All these sails are made small enough to handle individually in a blow, and each can be set to fit current conditions which is why there are so many of them. They’re good sails for downwind sailing, but not for tacking upwind. So let’s try the main mast: oh, same thing, it’s the Main Top Gallant Sail on top, then the Main Top Sail below and Main Sail on the bottom. Finally, she has her Main Sail up on the stern, probably just like your boat, except it has four corners instead of three – which makes it about a third bigger. This helps balance the boat against the downwind tug of that Fore Staysail. That’s it for now, and don’t worry, there won’t be a test!

Photography by Nancy Cherry Eifert – text by Larry Eifert. See more at nancycherryeifert.com

Larry Eifert

Thanks for reading this week. Send this to someone who might appreciate what I’m painting and tell them to sign up. I’m trying to expand my list. An email will work.

Here’s the blog on the web.And here’s my Facebook fan page. I post lots of other stuff there.

Click here to go to our main website – with jigsaw puzzles, prints, interpretive portfolios and lots of other stuff.

Nancy’s web portfolio of beautiful photographs

And Click here to go to Virginia Eifert’s website. Her books are now becoming available as Amazon Kindle books.

New Published Story

Oystercatchers – Published January 2015

2015-1-Oystercatchers

Here is my 48 North story for January, 2015 – saw a pair of these guys along the beach in town, so, art copies life. And here’s the text that went with it. 

With orange eye, darker eye-ring and astonishing red-orange bill, black oystercatchers might be described as a bird in a Halloween outfit. And then there are those fleshy legs and feet. When we recently saw two on beach rocks, we both stopped and said the same thing: whowee! There are around 400 oystercatchers in the Puget Sound area, and they tend to nest on grassy beaches without trees nearby (think predators overhead). Oystercatchers don’t migrate, but in winter might form loose flocks. It’s reported that all the San Juan oystercatchers get together in a sort of winter confab. Listen for their loud, piercing whistle, which to me implies wild rocky coasts like no other sound.

If you notice that orange bill, it’s not just long, but strangely-shaped like a sideways chisel. It begins as a triangle at the skull, but immediately slims down to a vertical pry bar all the way out to the blunt tip.  Why? Because these birds make their living prying shells off rocks. With one stab of that bill on a partially-open shell’s adductor muscle, it’s toast, and with the mussel open the oystercatcher can pull out the contents – dinner on the half-shell. This is often accomplished in the wave zone because wet mussels are already open a tad to filter water. I’ve watched oystercatchers working limpet beds with a quick: pry off and stab, pry and stab – gulp, gulp. Pure proficiency.

Larry Eifert paints and writes about wild places. His work is in many national parks across America – and at larryeifert.com.

Thanks for reading this week. Send this to someone who might appreciate what I’m painting and tell them to sign up. I’m trying to expand my list. An email will work.
Larry Eifert

Here’s the blog on the web.And here’s my Facebook fan page. I post lots of other stuff there.

Click here to go to our main website – with jigsaw puzzles, prints, interpretive portfolios and lots of other stuff.

Nancy’s web portfolio of beautiful photographs

And Click here to go to Virginia Eifert’s website. Her books are now becoming available as Amazon Kindle books.

New Painting Post

Pacific Wren study

Pacific-Wren

This little wren hangs out around the deer-fenced garden. It sometimes sits on the gate, not 20 feet from where I’m sitting right now, 50 feet from where this was painted.

Feels like it’s family in some way – short cocky tail, no neck. That’s a Pacific Wren ‘look’ all right, and the instant way you can i.d. this little ball of brown fluff.

Pacific-Wren-framed

This ORIGINAL painting is acrylic on board, 6″ x 9″ and $145 framed. Outside edge of the frame is about 12″ x 15″.
This custom frame has a triple liner and glass. Shipping adds just a bit more depending on your zone. This is the original painting, NOT a print.
Email us for details.

Thanks for reading this week. Send this to someone who might appreciate what I’m painting and tell them to sign up. I’m trying to expand my list. An email will work.
Larry Eifert

Here’s the blog on the web.And here’s my Facebook fan page. I post lots of other stuff there.

Click here to go to our main website – with jigsaw puzzles, prints, interpretive portfolios and lots of other stuff.

Nancy’s web portfolio of beautiful photographs

And Click here to go to Virginia Eifert’s website. Her books are now becoming available as Amazon Kindle books.

New Painting Post

Passing Moment – Soon Gone

Heather-Creek-Feeder-Stream

Our little trail went right by this seasonal creek carrying runoff from snow much farther up the mountain – Buckhorn Peak. I loved the way the trail, carrying us, mimicked the creek, carry the water. Both of us were traveling, both right here at the same moment in time and together by chance. One of us appreciated the light and lush effects it produced with light streaming through the forest and onto the water. In a moment, all three were gone.

 

Heather Creek is up the Dungeness River, Olympic National Forest and National Park, second steepest watershed in America. In its 32 miles, the river drops 7,300 feet. I can say I’ve been from bottom to top of this river – it’s one of my favorites. From old-growth hemlock forests lacking fire scars to a waterfall that looks like a feathery curtain, broad meadows, alpine tarns, towering peaks named Deception, Buckhorn and Constance – it’s all here. I’ve painted it often, and if I can walk, I’ll be back!

Heather-Creek-Feeder-Stream-framed

This ORIGINAL painting is acrylic on board, 6″ x 9″ and $145 framed. Outside edge of the frame is about 12″ x 15″.
This custom frame has a triple liner and glass. Shipping adds just a bit more depending on your zone. This is the original painting, NOT a print.
Email us for details.

Thanks for reading this week. Send this to someone who might appreciate what I’m painting and tell them to sign up. I’m trying to expand my list. An email will work.
Larry Eifert

Here’s the blog on the web.And here’s my Facebook fan page. I post lots of other stuff there.

Click here to go to our main website – with jigsaw puzzles, prints, interpretive portfolios and lots of other stuff.

Nancy’s web portfolio of beautiful photographs

And Click here to go to Virginia Eifert’s website. Her books are now becoming available as Amazon Kindle books.

Posts about other stuff

A New Website For Me – Oh Boy

Eifert-front-page

See it here at LarryEifert.com

I’ve probably spent too much time messing with this instead of painting, but I now have a new website, completely redesigned, lots of new stuff, lots of little interesting corners with new content. And with a total of around 390 pages and posts, things were getting messy with the old one – so, I spent some time over the holidays tearing it apart and rebuilding a more modern version.

 

This one is ‘responsive’, meaning it looks good on your phone and tablet, pc and laptop – all of them at once if you have eight eyes. It still has the shopping cart with all the goodies like the puzzles, but there are new travel albums, 24 pages of murals and park projects that are better laid out. Better search capabilities are there too.  That’s Nancy lurking behind all the backgrounds, she comes, she goes, up and down some of our favorite local trails.

Smaller-Wildlife-Paintings

All my weekly posts are here too – might make a good book someday. There are over 300 of them. The comments are still closed until I can find a better spam screening, but that’s coming soon.

I finally got all the recent smaller paintings into albums there that can be seen as slideshows. There’s a lot of content that’s never been seen like this. Again, here’s the link, but it’s still just larryeifert.com.

Thanks for reading this week. Send this to someone who might appreciate what I’m painting and tell them to sign up. I’m trying to expand my list. An email will work.
Larry Eifert

Here’s the blog on the web.And here’s my Facebook fan page. I post lots of other stuff there.

Click here to go to our main website – with jigsaw puzzles, prints, interpretive portfolios and lots of other stuff.

Nancy’s web portfolio of beautiful photographs. We’re redesigning her site too – so check it out.

And Click here to go to Virginia Eifert’s website. Her books are now becoming available as Amazon Kindle books.

New Painting Post

Whidbey Island Prairie – Spring and Early Summer

Spring-prairie-progress

Work in progress: a new painting on it’s way. Click the image and it should enlarge in your browser.

Unveiling of an almost-finished new project today. I’ve been working on this for some time and it’s closing in on completion. Thought I’d toss it out for comments. I still have some bit to go, like adding another layer of closeup grasses and sedge, refining some of the flowers and critters – just tightening it up.

Nancy
Nancy at the prairie – pack strapped on full of camera gear for reference shots.

This is the sixth painting for the Whidbey Camano Island Land Trust and it will eventually be an outdoor wayside panel “planted” in a piece of rare natural prairie they’ve recently acquired. It’s right along the bluff in the Admiralty Inlet Natural Area Preserve – and in the background you can see Port Townsend and the Olympic Peninsula. So what’s the big deal here? It’s rare natural prairie, yes, but also a place with some very interesting and rare plants, like the Golden Paintbrush. And the site is only one of a handful where this beautiful plant grows. While it grows here naturally, the Land Trust is actively adding thousands of new plants or all types to jump start that’s already here. It’s a massive undertaking I’m continually impressed with – and I can’t even mow my own grass on a timely basis.

Nancy1
At the plant nursery where the Land Trust is supplementing thousands of new plants to help the prairie regain its original ecosystem. It’s a long haul that will take years.

This is the first of two of these prairie paintings. Stay tuned – I’ll send out photos of this one upon completion, and keep you in the loop for the second. It’s a very fun project for me.

Thanks for reading this week. Send this to someone who might appreciate what I’m painting and tell them to sign up. I’m trying to expand my list. An email will work.

Larry Eifert

Here’s the blog on the web.And here’s my Facebook fan page. I post lots of other stuff there.

Click here to go to our main website – with jigsaw puzzles, prints, interpretive portfolios and lots of other stuff.

Nancy’s web portfolio of beautiful photographs

And Click here to go to Virginia Eifert’s website. Her books are now becoming available as Amazon Kindle books.

New Painting Post, Wildlife

Rufous Hummingbird Looking for Spiders

Rufous-Looking-Spiders

Click to enlarge in your browser.

Just a new painting that could be happening right outside my studio window, but isn’t. We have several Anna’s Hummers wintering over nowadays – enjoying our warmer winters. I often see them flying among the branches, carefully checking each bit of moss, each crook and corner, then a quick snatch-up of a hapless spider for lunch. The other hummingbird species commonly here is the Rufous, a reddish-brown job like this painting, but for some reason these tiny birds are NOT over-wintering. Instead, just like forever before, they fly off to Mexico or Costa Rica (where we all want to go this time of year). It’s obviously cheaper and safer for these little guys to stay home and dine on spiders and mites, but so far they don’t do it (so I painted one as if it did). Makes us think it’s spring already.

Rufous-Looking-Spiders-framed

This ORIGINAL painting is acrylic on board, 6″ x 9″ and $145 framed. Outside edge of the frame is about 12″ x 15″.
This custom frame has a triple liner and glass. Shipping adds just a bit more depending on your zone. This is the original painting, NOT a print.
Email us for details.

Thanks for reading this week. You might send this to someone who you think would appreciate what I’m painting and tell them to sign up for my  weekly posts. I’m trying to expand my list. An email with their email to me will work too.

Thanks for reading this week, and enjoy the last of 2014.

Larry Eifert

Here’s the blog on the web. And here’s my Facebook fan page. I post lots of other stuff there.

Click here to go to our main website – with jigsaw puzzles, prints, interpretive portfolios and lots of other stuff.

Nancy’s web portfolio of beautiful photographs

And, Click here to go to Virginia Eifert’s website. Her books are now becoming available as Amazon Kindle books.