All posts by Wilderness Walker

New Painting Post

Up The Hill

Up-the-Hill

This little acrylic was painted a month ago and I was holding it for a friend who appears to not want it now – so here it is on my blog ready for a new home. I painted several studies of this hillside road close to us, but this one became a trail. To me, the white at the top of the grade makes the center of interest work well – like a light bulb enticing you “up the hill.” This is the nice thing about painting over photography, but I’d never say that to Nancy (who spends a lot of energy looking for photographic images that look like paintings).

 Sorry, it’s now sold.

Since Solstice and the new year are almost here, I just want to thank everyone for the amazing support I’ve gotten on my blog-thing. I posted my 250th post last week, and of these 36 new small paintings I’ve recently finished, only a few are left in the studio. Feels good. Thanks, everyone. I wouldn’t have imagined it, but this is becoming a very personal way to sell my stuff. Each sale seems to have an email-back-and-forth that lets me get to know who’s buying it – a very different experience from the typical gallery sale where I usually don’t even know the name of the buyer because it might breech some client/gallery confidence. And at this stage of my life, ‘personal’ is becoming more and more important to Nancy and I. Making a living as a painter is more than just making money.

Up-the-Hill-framed

This ORIGINAL painting is acrylic on board, 6″ x 9″ and $145 framed. Outside measurements are about 12″ x 15″. The 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.
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

My Monthly Story for 48 North Magazine

ArtistsViewOct14

Click on the image to enlarge it in your browser. There might be a test later about Murres.

Dang, too much stuff to post. With all these small acrylic paintings flying about, I’ve been forgetting to post my monthly page in 48 North magazine. This one was about Common Murres, and in fall I see these birds often when I’m sailing in Port Townsend Bay, and, as usual, I simply painted and wrote about what’s happening in my life. Bear with me – it may be a couple of months old, but still some fun writing and illustrations. These pages are  pencil and acrylic illustrations – fun and fast for me, and hopefully loose and tight at the same time.

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

Rufous-sided Towhee Study

Towhee-on-Leader

Sorry, it’s sold. “Rufous-sided Towhee Study” is an acrylic on board, 6″x 9″ and is offered in an 12″ x 15″ frame for $145, frame included. And we have several different frame styles.

These guys always look agitated and eccentric, so that’s what I tried to paint. 

We have multiple families of these tail-flickers here at the studio. Always a pleasure to watch, we’ve come to recognize individuals by where they sit in the afternoon sunning themselves near a favorite hiding spot. Bold and vigorous, they flick those big tails, back and forth, up and down, as if that’ll impress someone. Maybe me.

Here’s the teachable moment, at least for me. We’ve come to realize the real value of ‘backyard’ birds isn’t just the entertainment, beauty and activity they provide out our windows, but a gauge of how vibrant and healthy a place is. When we moved in here many years ago, the last guy had a dog, sprayed lots of stuff, Roundup, soil sterilizers, you name it. He offered us about 10 sprayers and claimed I’d sure need them – apple spray, cherry spray, and when I asked him if he actually got cherries he said no. Time moved on, we didn’t spray, didn’t have an outside dog – and the wildlife eventually came to us in a very big way. Countless paintings of our ‘locals’ have ‘flown’ out the studio door because of the closeup wildlife we have for models. If you read this blog, you see that fairly consistently. I’m convinced that it’s not where we live as much as how we’ve treated our land and its residents. We’re a family here, although sometimes kids can get a bit unruly (take for instance that 220 lb. buck that came through last night).

 

Towhee-on-Leader

 

Here it is again: This ORIGINAL painting, “Rufous-sided Towhee Study” is an acrylic on board, 6″x 9″ and is offered framed in an 12″ x 15″ frame (outside measurements) for $145, frame included. and 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.
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 Golden Sunset Hike

Sunset-Hike

On a late afternoon hike not long ago,  I clearly remember this place, open scattered meadows, a golden-red sun streaming in from the left and lighting up things as if they were internally electrified. Trees seemed to be somewhat blurred as the light bounced around, making it feel almost like a sunlight-fog. I  wanted to walk here forever, but the bugs were getting intense the farther I went. Can you guys tell I’m a hiker? I mean, without hiking I can feel myself starting to dry up emotionally. I truly believe doing it will keep me alive forever, and help keep me in such better health that old age won’t feel like old age. So far, it seems to be working, and helping me to keep painting too.

Sunset-Hike-framed

This ORIGINAL painting is acrylic on board, 6″ x 9″ and $145 framed. Outside measurements are about 12″ x 15″.
The 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. Know someone who might appreciate my stuff? Send me an email and I’ll sign them up.

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

Once a Logging Road

Old-Logging-Road

 

First, I’d like to apologize for the extra posts some people received a few days ago. Fuse blew in the studio, computers crashed, amazingly the post in question was duplicated 32 times and began sending the mailing list out. What a mess. I try not to overstep my welcome.

So, back to this new painting: Imagine giant 80-ton log trucks rumbling down this little road. Must have been a nature-nightmare, but now it’s about as serene as it gets for cutover forest, an occasional big tree still left here and there. We’re lucky enough to have a few of these big guys here at our place, standing beside the old haul-road like overlords sweating they might be next. But, thankfully, industry is gone and we’re making sure it doesn’t come here again any time soon. I like the way the sun falls on the road, like little searchlights.

Old-Logging-Road-framed

This ORIGINAL painting is acrylic on board, 6″ x 9″ and $145 framed. Outside edge of the frame is about 12″ x 15″.
The 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.

Uncategorized

Golden-crowned Kinglet – Huckleberries

 

Golden-crowned-Kinglet-and-Huckleberries

Not 20 feet out the studio window, Nancy’s blueberry leaves are showing some amazing fall bronze, green and yellow. So, then a little golden-crowned kinglet came along. This painting was just meant to be, I guess. Someone asked me how these small paintings feel to paint after miles of paint on big murals. To tell the truth, what I like is the simple fact they’re not commissions and I have to please someone other than myself. Other than that, it’s all the same, just the brush sizes are different, and maybe the fact that I use my fingers on these – and the back of my hand of the bigger stuff.

 

One of my last posts sold to a past client who bought it for her budding artist grand-daughter. I wrote a little card to go with it which gave me a chance to speak of what I actually liked about the painting, what to look for if I were her. It was fun to think about.

This one? Look at the cool feathers compared to the rest of it, but not ‘cool’ in the 60’s sense. The slight coolness of the bird should make it recede (cool colors generally recede in a painting), but they just blow out at you because the rest of it is so hot.

Golden-crnd-Kinglet-Huckleberries-framed

This ORIGINAL painting is acrylic on board, 6″ x 9″ and $145 framed.

The custom frame has a triple liner and glass. Outside measurements are about 12″ x 15″ 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 for more posts. I’m trying to expand my list. An email  to me with their address 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

The Top of Our Hill – a new painting

Top-of-our-hill

Sorry, this is sold.

About two minutes from my studio, our road drops to the Chimacum Creek Estuary. When we moved in here, we asked what was ‘down there’ and were told simply, ‘oh, some water, a few trees, it just deadends into the forest’. Little did we realize there was a place worthy of park-status, and we’ve loved it ever since. Salmon, herons, kingfishers, Nancy recently spotted a mountain lion almost exactly here.I’ve painted the road many times, but never with the warm glow of fall, so here’s an warm fall-color rendition. Recently, our local Land Trust just bought some of it, saving this place for us and everyone else.

Top-of-our-hill-framed

* Click images and they should enlarge in your browser.

This ORIGINAL painting is acrylic on board, 6″ x 9″ and $145 framed. Outside measurements are about 12″ x 15″.
The 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.
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

Nuthatch in the Wild Cherry

Nuthatch-Cherry

Right down the lane from our studio some wild cherries are in the last throws of fall color. Bronze and red, yellow and  a little remaining green – stunning colors in a sea of cedars and fir. These trees appear to  have begun their lives in the 1980’s when our forest was cleared, then stump and dirt were sold for the house. I still see the guy around town who did this, and it’s all I can do not to yell at the poor guy.

 

But that happened 30 years ago, and since these hardwood cherries only live 30 years or so, I thought I’d eulogize them a bit with this painting. When they fall from winter storms and tired roots, I get the chainsaw out and most will eventually end up in our fireplace where we enjoy them again. And, the red-breasted nuthatches searching for spiders will find another tree to check out. For me, this painting will be a reminder of a thoughtful moment in our forest when I stood down there pondering the fall leaves.

 

Nuthatch-Cherry-framedThis ORIGINAL painting is acrylic on board, 6″ x 9″ and $145 framed. Outside measurements are about 12″ x 15″.

The 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. If you’re interested, you should let me know as these smaller paintings haven’t been staying around long.
Email us for details.

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. She has a new show up at Gallery Nine in Port Townsend. Stop in and see it.

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

New Painting Post

Chestnut-backed Chickadee

Chestnut-backed-Chickadee

Sorry, it’s sold.

I have an ongoing series with this little bird, and their buddies, the  nuthatches, kinglets and wrens. This time of year the leaves are mostly gone off the alders and maples, and for the first time in months I can see their beautiful shapes. Some of the older trees are nicely festooned with moss and lichens, making for even better drawings. The birds and branches, nice subjects for small paintings of these small birds that are currently flocking together in little gangs. They’re this summer’s families, still bonded together and working the branches for insects.

Chestnut-backed-Chickadee-framed

This ORIGINAL painting is acrylic on board, 6″ x 9″ and $145 framed. Outside frame measures about 12″ x 15″. Gallery prices will be higher. The 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 if you’re interested. I’m happy to say these little paintings aren’t lasting long.

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 She has a new show opening this weekend in Port Townsend’s Gallery Nine.

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

New Painting Post

Nuthatch at the Front Door

 

Nuthatch-Front-Door

A new painting: Red-breasted Nuthatch at the front door. Click to enlarge in your browser.

What to do? – I have nine new paintings awaiting posting on my blog, but already four have gone to new homes. And then there are all the other projects coming out of my studio – none of them have been posted here in months. Maybe I need to post more, but I don’t want to over-burden my faithful followers with too much of this stuff. Speaking of faithful, this painting came about from our bird feeder faithful and a recent warm sunset making our woods just glow with light.

Nuthatch-Front-Door-framed

This ORIGINAL painting is acrylic on board, 6″ x 9″ and $145 framed.
The 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.

 

And if you made it down this far, I had a very nice feature story in the Springfield Illinois newspaper last week about my past adventures. Someone once said my life reads like a Steinbeck novel. Possibly, but for the most part, it was fair and fairly well written, not too many lies or exaggerations.

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.