Category Archives: Small oil studies

2026-5-10 Various Experiments

Our Swainson’s Thrush is on the elderberry, a soft mix of elegance – at least I hope that’s how it turned out.

These new oils are part of my efforts to learn more about liquid mediums, mixes of various evil brews of linseed oil, driers and thinners. Oils are complicated – you almost have to be a chemist to mix this goop, but I’m getting there. It makes life easier for the brushes – and painter if I get it right. Problem is, there isn’t a ‘right’.

These are all 9″ x 12″ on canvas and most are available on my Eifert Gallery on Etsy here.

It’s a fairly complicated painting for only 9″x12″, so here’s a larger version.

This second painting came from a recent hike up the Dosewallips River in the eastern Olympic Mountains. This isn’t the actual river, but a side tributary carrying water from the Tunnel Creek divide. Falling Water, 9″x12″ includes this silver frame or a gold one, you pick. Outside measurements are 14″ x 17″. Spring runoff is happening at a very alarming rate this year and I wanted to remember it. This painting is available here on my Eifert Gallery site on Etsy.


And below is a similar painting that is now available, but it’s painted in acrylic on canvas instead of oil. Acrylic has served me well for everything from wall murals 90 feet long, to something like this, a 9″x12″ painting with a lot of controlled detail. It’s from a sketch I made in the Hoh Rain Forest, a backwater of the Hoh River. In winter, this is a wild and crazy river, bringing down entire old-growth trees to pile up against the shores in big logjams. The road is washed out often because of it, but then when summer comes it’s a very beautiful place – as you can see.

Logjam, and these others, are available in my Etsy gallery for $295 framed as you see it. I can send it framed in a gold or silver frame, your choice. You can compare the two in the Eifert Gallery on Etsy.

Thanks for reading this week. You can sign up for emails for these posts on my website at larryeifert.com.

Larry Eifert

Here is my Etsy site with my currently available paintings for easy sale.

Here’s my Facebook fan page. I post lots of other stuff there.

And Instagram is here.

Click here to go to our main website.

Nancy’s web portfolio of stunning photography and paintings.

And here to go to Virginia Eifert’s website.

Or Crater Lake Institute’s website which I also build – viewership of several million a month!

2026-4-25 New Paintings

I just finished wayside panel #2 for Island County’s Freeland Beach Park. It matches the first panel I posted a couple of weeks ago and replaces a worn-out 25 yr old panel. It’s about how Puget Sound bluffs continually make beaches, keep them healthy and support an entire ecosystem. Fun making this one up. This panel will outlive me, I’m sure, because it’ll be printed on aluminum.

Pacific Wren is a new oil on canvas, taken from life, this little guy was singing it’s heart out right here in our forest. It’s frame is 7″x9″.

Pacific Wren is available here, framed as you see it for $125, postage free.


And the same Pacific Wren made it into a second painting as it sat on a pile of moss and lichen. There’s a stick under that it has claws firmly attached to. I think the pair are nice together.

This painting is available here on my Etsy gallery. Pacific Wren on Moss is 7″x9″ outside measurements, framed as you see it for $125 shipping included.

These little birds were called Winter Wren until a couple of years ago when the pros renamed them. Personally, I liked the ‘Winter Wren name because they don’t migrate – so I got to enjoy them all year long. And you’d never, ever see one of these guys out in the Pacific Ocean hanging out with the sea otters.

Thanks for reading this week. You can sign up for emails for these posts on my website at larryeifert.com.

Larry Eifert

Here is my Etsy site with my currently available paintings for easy sale.

Here’s my Facebook fan page. I post lots of other stuff there.

And Instagram is here.

Click here to go to our main website.

Nancy’s web portfolio of stunning photography and paintings.

And here to go to Virginia Eifert’s website.

Or Crater Lake Institute’s website which I also build – viewership of several million a month!

Rufous Hummingbird oil on canvas

I just counted these little oils and it appears I’ve painted 35 of them in 2026. I must like doing it, or else I’m just goofed up on the paint fumes. I started these last fall in an effort to get a little better at oils, and I think I’m getting there.

These three are now available on my Eifert Gallery on Etsy, $125 each, framed as you see them here. Shipping is free. The gold frame is 7″x 9″ on the outside measurement. They’re all still available as of April 10, 2026.

This painting is now sold. Sorry.

As I’ve said, these are all sort of a journal of my experiences. We have Anna’s Hummingbirds here year-round, but recently here came this Rufous Hummingbird male soon followed by a mate. Bedlam on the feeders. So I made a painting of the male. That’s a LOT of feathers for such a little bird.

This second effort is a local trail in a local state park, a patch of old growth forest I always enjoy. Forests are so complicated and I enjoy figuring out how to simply them. This one I named ‘Dark Trail’. Here it is in the gallery.

These two square paintings are oil on canvas, outside frame measurements are both 8″x8″. Shipping is included. $125 each.

This last oil I called Sunset Trail, but it’s really the same trail a few hundred yards uphill from the painting above. Same size, same price as the other. Here’s the gallery link.

Thanks for reading this week. You can sign up for emails for these posts on my website at larryeifert.com.

Larry Eifert

Here is my Etsy site with my currently available paintings for easy sale.

Here’s my Facebook fan page. I post lots of other stuff there.

And Instagram is here.

Click here to go to our main website.

Nancy’s web portfolio of stunning photography and paintings.

And here to go to Virginia Eifert’s website.

Or Crater Lake Institute’s website which I also build – viewership of several million a month!

Freeland Beach Restoration Project

The first wayside panel of several more to come, this is going on Freeland Beach, a county shoreside park that has just rebuilt their beach to accommodate forage fish. Sure, people get to be here as well, but this is yet another effort to save endangered Orca whales in Puget Sound. Freeland is on Whidbey Island, just east of my studio here in Port Townsend, Washington.

Here’s the jobsite on the beach, an ancient wayside’s soon to be replaced by my new panel.

Just looks like a beach, doesn’t it? But there are good beaches for little fish, and not-so-good ones. The idea is make the beach useful for safety and spawning for little several kinds of small forage fish. These are small, schooling fish that serve as a vital food source for larger predators. Eaten by salmon, then the salmon are caught by orca – because orca are starving. This map below shows the three forage fish species, blue, green and red. The beach is right in the middle of the map.

So, enough science and thanks for reading to here. Here’s the panel sketch with my initial text.

And below the new beach with logs, beach grasses and other native plantings.

And finally, below, here’s a new painting on my Etsy Eifert Gallery, still available as of 3-19-2026. Here’s the link if you want to see more.

Thanks for reading this week. You can sign up for emails for these posts on my website at larryeifert.com.

Larry Eifert

Here is my Etsy site with my currently available paintings for easy sale.

Here’s my Facebook fan page. I post lots of other stuff there.

And Instagram is here.

Click here to go to our main website.

Nancy’s web portfolio of stunning photography and paintings.

And here to go to Virginia Eifert’s website.

Or Crater Lake Institute’s website which I also build – viewership of several million a month!

Small Original Oils Continue

Another group of new oil paintings are now available. These little guys are now competing with larger park and shoreline restoration art projects, but I enjoy making these. I think all of them worked pretty well. All are on my Etsy Gallery here and are framed for $125, shipping included. If you’re on your phone, here’s a bigger link. https://www.etsy.com/shop/eifertgallery

Nuthatch in the Lichen
This was inspired by a commission for two lichen-loving ladies in Minnesota. While doing lichen-research out in our forest here in Port Townsend, I had some good lichen models and so made this, a second painting. Yes, the Red-breasted Nuthatch was there wondering what I was doing.

Chestnut-backed Chickadee
Most of the shrubs are still bare this time of year, but with buds showing on a few. I found this Nootka Rose a great model.

Swainson’s Thrush
Nope, not here yet, but the other day I thought I heard th amazing song-spiral of a Swainson’s just at dusk. Could it be? Still pretty early for these songsters to be here, but I could hope – and make this painting.

Forest Trail
is in Fort Townsend State Park, about a mile from the studio. This is Big Tree Trail, which it sure is. Many of these big trees are well into old-growth status, and some show fire scars. which means over a century old. I get a charge out of figuring h out trunk colors, cool blue on the shadow side as it reflects sky colors, and warm yellow on the sunnier side, reflecting sun beams.

Chickadee
Just down the Big Trees Trail (above), there’s a small Douglas-fir that died last year, and already the woodpeckers and sapsuckers are into it. Nature does not like anything not being used, so now I’ve seen chickadees inspecting the woodpecker holes for possible nesting sites later in spring. And suddenly there’s a painting about it all. That’s sort of my life these days, painting oil paintings as daily journals. All of these are almost ready for varnish and framing.

Thanks for reading this week. You can sign up for emails for these posts on my website at larryeifert.com.

Larry Eifert

Here is my Etsy site with my currently available paintings for easy sale.

Here’s my Facebook fan page. I post lots of other stuff there.

And Instagram is here.

Click here to go to our main website.

Nancy’s web portfolio of stunning photography and paintings.

And here to go to Virginia Eifert’s website.

Or Crater Lake Institute’s website which I also build – viewership of several million a month!

Some more small oil paintings

Purple Finch portrait. Click the link to get to my store on Etsy. Outside frame measurements are 7″x9″. This finch was a regular on the seed feeder all last summer. I’d see it often on the old madrona log in our nearby pond, jumping between the pond and little waterfall where all our birds go for baths. They properly wait turns, and this guy did so as well. Good manners. Maybe if I paint it, we’ll see this little guy again. All these are my usual, framed as you see them for $125, free shipping in the US.

The easiest and cheapest way to purchase these:
Click the link to get to my store on Etsy.
https://www.etsy.com/shop/EifertGallery

Ruby-crowned Kinglet.

I’m really enjoying making these small oils. I look forward to making more, which is happening almost as I write this.

Anna’s Hummingbird portrait

Long-billed Dowitcher on a winter pond.

Townsend Chipmunk in the Miner’s Lettuce – what a meal.

 

Thanks for reading this week. You can sign up for emails for these posts on my website at larryeifert.com.

Larry Eifert

Here is my Etsy site with my currently available paintings for easy sale.

Here’s my Facebook fan page. I post lots of other stuff there.

And Instagram is here.

Click here to go to our main website.

Nancy’s web portfolio of stunning photography and paintings.

And here to go to Virginia Eifert’s website.

Or Crater Lake Institute’s website which I also build – viewership of several million a month!

Some New Wildlife Paintings

All of these are available and I think we have enough time to get them to you before Christmas. All are oils on canvas, framed as you see them here. Outside measurements are 8″x10″ or 9″x9″ for the square ones. $125 each, postage paid. A click should enlarge them in your browser.

These are all painted from personal experiences I’ve had in the last few months. Some just a few days ago, like the deer with one of our apples here in our meadow. Very rewarding to have the experience, then live it again by painting the event. I’ve always loved the idea of sealing an experience with something that will stay around, probably longer than I will.

To purchase any of these, just drop me a message here at larryeifert@gmail.com.

They’re also on Etsy if you’d like to buy them there. https://www.etsy.com/shop/eifertgallery

Thanks for reading this week. You can sign up for emails for these posts on my website at larryeifert.com.

Larry Eifert

Here is my Etsy site with my currently available paintings for easy sale.

Here’s my Facebook fan page. I post lots of other stuff there.

And Instagram is here.

Click here to go to our main website.

Nancy’s web portfolio of stunning photography and paintings.

And here to go to Virginia Eifert’s website.

Or Crater Lake Institute’s website which I also build – viewership of several million a month!

New Oil Paintings of my Friends

All of these are new oil paintings on canvas board, framed and available. I painted them all at 5″ x 7″, the frame makes the outside edge 8″ x 10″. All are $95 each, shipping included, which is a bit cheaper than what it says on Etsy. Live in Port Townsend or the Quimper Peninsula, I can deliver.

A few months ago I painted similar offerings as these, now mostly sold, and tended to focus on entire stories with little birds involved. They were more like the chickadee painting, above, with the bird a center of interest in an entire ecosystem. These new paintings are more focused on the bird itself, as if the viewer were eyeball-to-eyeball with a little ball of fluff.

Fun for me to have enough information to understand how the eye sits in relation to the bill and head shape. If you’d like to learn more, or want any of these, just drop me an email at larryeifert@gmail.com.

Thanks for reading this week. You can sign up for emails for these posts on my website at larryeifert.com.

Larry Eifert

Here is my Etsy site with my currently available paintings for easy sale.

Here’s my Facebook fan page. I post lots of other stuff there.

And Instagram is here.

Click here to go to our main website.

Nancy’s web portfolio of stunning photography and paintings.

And here to go to Virginia Eifert’s website.

Or Crater Lake Institute’s website which I also build – viewership of several million a month!

Small Oils Volume 6

A quick look on the left shows one of the other paintings, Royal Lake Trail, sitting in my tool area.

These are my most recent small oil studies, plus a few still available, all painted in the past couple of months. Some have been shown here before, some not. They’re all on canvas board and varnished. Painting sizes are all the same, 5″x7″. The outside frames measure 7″x9″. They are all framed as you see them here.

Downy Woodpecker

The idea process here was a tiny bird on a big tree. These little woodpeckers, only 6″ long weigh less than an ounce. They make great painterly subjects because the darker whites seem to change a bit with the seasons. This one was on the big Douglas-fir right outside our studio porch. Those are little wisps of old-man’s beard lichen in the upper corner.

Black-tailed Deer in Rosehips

Lots of Columbian black-tailed deer here. Walking on a local trail in Port Townsend, I became sort of lost in the masses of rose hips on the Nootka roses I was passing. Amazing colors this time of year (early spring), and in places the branches are starting to turn purplish red with spring flush of juice. When I got back in the studio I started playing around with some samples I broke off to take. She was in the thicket, too.

Red Squirrel

I’m greeted each morning by several of these little feisty squirrels as they await me to toss some sunflower seeds on the big tray feeder. Brazen little creatures, they’re not so easy to paint. In summer, they seem a bit more brown, winter coat is more gray – an adaptation to owl safety, maybe.

Royal Basin Trail above the Lake

Lots going on in this little painting, maybe because I didn’t want to leave the place lodged in my mind. This is a trail I’ve been on many times! It takes the hiker up past Royal Lake and into a truly sensational alpine area. Surrounded by some of the tallest peaks in the Olympic Mountains, I have wandered here wishing I’d just become a marmot so I wouldn’t have to leave. I tend to paint these trail images from memory, often in winter when I can’t get there physically.

House Finch

House finches have this odd way of looking down their beaks, as if they’re twisting sideways to see better. It’s almost like they’re judging me. But just try to paint one doing this. Not sure I got it correct, but I liked the colors a lot. That’s Carmine Lake paint, by the way, a color not to be forgotten.

When it fell, this was probably the biggest alder we have have here – and it was already dead when it collapsed of rot and time. I was looking at it not long ago and noticed how nicely the log was providing nest holes and insects for the birds – and so I painted this little story-painting about it. The chickadee really was there, bouncing around the new plants growing on the log’s top.

These are all priced like the others at $95 each, framed. Shipping will be USPS and will add a bit more, but the cost of shipping is fairly low. Email me if you’re interested in knowing more. larryeifert@gmail.com

You might have missed the other posts of these little oils, but I’ve been doing these to test different mixes of medium, linseed oil, thinner and driers like cobalt and Liquin. I’m still not ‘there’ yet with it, but making these small paintings has been very fun for me – and having painted full-time for so many decades now, I find it amazing it can still feel fresh. So, I’m continuing on with new efforts.

Here’s a link to the few others that are still unsold. https://larryeifert.com/wordpress/current-originals-for-sale/

Thanks for reading this week. You can sign up for emails for these posts on my website at larryeifert.com.

Larry Eifert

Here is my Etsy site with my currently available paintings for easy sale.

Here’s my Facebook fan page. I post lots of other stuff there.

And Instagram is here.

Click here to go to our main website.

Nancy’s web portfolio of stunning photography and paintings.

And here to go to Virginia Eifert’s website.

Or Crater Lake Institute’s website which I also build – viewership of several million a month!

Small Oils Volume 5

These are my most recent oil studies, all painted in the past couple of weeks. They’re on canvas board and varnished. Painting sizes are all the same, 5″x7″. The outside frames measure 7″x9″. They are all framed as you see them here.

Chickadee in the Rose Hips framed Sorry, this is sold.
Chestnut-backed Chickadee in the Nootka Rose Hips Sold

Walking on a local trail here in Port Townsend, I became sort of lost in the masses of rose hips on the Nootka roses I was passing. Amazing colors this time of year, and in places the branches are starting to turn purplish red with spring flush of juice showing spring is close! When I got back in the studio I started playing around with some samples I broke off. Two of these paintings came from that.

Bewicks Wren on the Lichen Branch framed
Bewick’s Wren on the Lichen Branch
The Trail Past Grand Lake framed

This is a trail I’ve been on many times! It leads the hiker up past Royal Lake and into an alpine zone truly sensational to see. Surrounded by some of the tallest peaks in the Olympic Mountains, I have wandered here wishing I’d just become a marmot so I wouldn’t have to leave. I tend to paint these trail images from memory, usually in winter when I can’t get there physically.

The Trail Past Royal Lake, Olympic National Park (just 24 miles from my studio).
Downy Woodpecker on Douglas-fir framed

These little woodpeckers, only 6″ long and less than an ounce in weight are different here than in the Eastern forests. They’re darker, less pure white, but it varies. They make great painterly subjects because the darker whites seem to change a bit with the seasons. This one was on the Douglas-fir right outside our studio porch. Those are little wisps of old-man’s beard lichen in the upper corner.

Downy Woodpecker on Douglas-fir
Black-tailed Deer behind the Winter Rose Hips framed
Black-tailed Deer behind the Rose Hips

These are priced like the others at $95 each, framed. Shipping will be USPS and will add a bit more, but the cost of shipping is fairly low. Email me if you’re interested in knowing more. larryeifert@gmail.com

You might have missed the other posts of these little oils, but I’ve been doing these to test different mixes of medium, linseed oil, thinner and dries like cobalt and Liquin. I’m still not ‘there’ yet with it, but making these have been very fun for me – and painting for so many decades now, I find it amazing this can still feel fresh and alive to see them appear on the canvas.

Here’s a link to the few others that are still unsold. https://larryeifert.com/wordpress/current-originals-for-sale/

Thanks for reading this week. You can sign up for emails for these posts on my website at larryeifert.com.

Larry Eifert

Here is my Etsy site with my currently available paintings for easy sale.

Here’s my Facebook fan page. I post lots of other stuff there.

And Instagram is here.

Click here to go to our main website.

Nancy’s web portfolio of stunning photography and paintings.

And here to go to Virginia Eifert’s website.

Or Crater Lake Institute’s website which I also build – viewership of several million a month!