Tag Archives: American Dipper

Giclee prints, New Painting Post, Wildlife

Dipper and Misty Waterfall Painting

This painting has been a work in progress for long enough, so  I thought I should offer it here to end my fussing with it.

These little seasonal streams are everywhere in the Northwest, and you can’t hike too far without seeing a few. I like them, each one different, and American Dippers also like them possibly because they’re less dangerous than big and more powerful waterfalls that can crush little birds. I read that harlequin ducks who share these same habitats have been found to have many healed broken bones from crashing about underwater in these streams. It’s probably the same for smaller dippers.

I like the textures in this painting, so maybe that’s why I kept it around, making it more textural, then less, then – oh just sell it. Like the painting process, nature is messy, until you understand it, and in this case the way ferns and saxifrige leaves all jumble together, each staking claim on a momentary bit of sunlight streaming through the canopy. When the light finally does penetrate all the way to the forest floor, it’s like a brilliant spotlight is highlighting an actor in a play.

This painting is acrylic on board and is 11″ x 14″.

I have a scan that can make a high-quality print up to 32″ x 42″ on canvas. 

And currently, it’s framed as you see it here under glass in a wood frame. Outside dimensions are 20″ x 24″. It’s acrylic on board, so it might not need the glass.

Dipper-Misty-Waterfal-framed

Price for this painting FRAMED as you see it is $295, about 40% less than gallery price. Shipping would add a bit more. 

Email us at larry@larryeifert.com. 

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Larry Eifert

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

Nancy’s web portfolio of stunning photography and paintings.

And here to go to Virginia Eifert’s website.

New Painting Post, Wildlife

American Dipper

American dipper working the Upper Dungeness – but it could be any clean mountain stream hereabouts. A little space between projects, so I painted my favorite bird – John Muir’s favorite bird too. No secret why, this little bird lives where Muir felt most at home, and I do too – next to  a clear rushing and wild bit of water in the high country. Dippers are so connected to this singular habitat that they’ll fly around a stream bend instead short-cutting across a meadow. ‘Dine in’ for a dipper means diving into a waterfall and walking around underwater, kicking stones around and eating insects. 

Painting moving water is always a joy for me, but also has some mental anguish. It’s not easy to define what it looks like – something that is more a feeling than a fact. There is lots of bounced light, reflecting off the sky, nearby trees, sunny patches of moss that is getting direct sunlight. It’s not what I see, but more what I think I feel that is important. Did I get it on this one? I’m never sure.

I realized at the beginning that this would be a gray and green painting, cool colors. So, I started it by priming the board with Mars Red, a very brilliant purplish-red that you can see hints of all over the painting. Look carefully, you’ll see what I mean. It warmed the entire painting up a lot.

This painting is still for sale as of January 31, 2019. It’s framed as you see it here, outside measurements are about 20″ x 24″ and is $295 total, with shipping a bit extra. Email me at larry@larryeifert.com if you’re interested. 

Sorry, this painting sold a few hours after posting.

Thanks for reading this week.

Larry Eifert

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 stunning photography and paintings

And here to go to Virginia Eifert’s website

New Painting Post

The Eighth Dipper

Dipper-8

Click the image and it should enlarge in your browser window.

I recently painted another small dipper painting for a very nice client in California. What, another dipper? Yes, and then looking at my dipper reference photos I turned right around and painted this one.

I seem to be evolving into a real dipper-connoisseur.  What’s not to like? This little bird lives only by the cleanest and wildest of mountain streams, walks and flies underwater and builds its nest behind waterfalls. Dippers are equipped with an extra eyelid that allows them to see underwater, and sports scales that close nostrils tight when submerged. Dippers also produce more oil than most birds, which may help keep them warmer when they’re walking around underwater. If they migrate, it’s usually just downslope to open water so they can dive into icy creeks, and given a choice of flying the long way around or over a narrow bend, dippers will always take the long way to stay directly over their beloved stream. I was reminded that another name for them is the water ouzel. My mom called them that, and was known to drive 1200 miles west of Illinois to see one.

And here’s the reference photo I worked from. You guys always say you like to see how a painting evolves, so here’s the beginning – a photo taken with my little point-and-shoot last year about 3 miles up the Tunnel Creek Trail just near the shelter. This little guy was sitting on ‘his’ rock enjoying some sun, and stayed long enough for both Nancy and I to get some very tasty shots. Did I get the values close enough?

Dipper-8-reference

This ORIGINAL painting is varnished acrylic on linen canvas, 11″ x 14″ and $140 unframed.
A custom wood frame makes it a total of $170 and shipping adds just a bit more depending on your zone or if you take the frame. 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. She now has her own web domain name at virginiaeifert.com. What would she have thought about THAT?

New Painting Post

American Dipper 5

Dipper-5-8x10

    American Dipper 5 is a new original painting, acrylic on board, 8″ x 10″ and $140 unframed. This is another in my on-going search for the perfect dipper waterfall.

A custom frame makes it a total of $170 and shipping adds just a bit more depending on your zone or if you take the frame. This is the original painting, NOT a print.
Email us for details. I can send a photo of the frames we have available.

       And then there’s this: We spent the last couple of weeks working around the eastern Cascades near Leavenworth, Washington and day-hiking below the Enchantments. Amazing giant mountains, warm days and fall colors at their peak. Nancy gained some very tasty images for an up-coming show – and I found new material for more dipper paintings.

Nancy-up-Snow-Lake-trail

 

     Here’s Nancy hiking almost straight up on Snow Lakes Trail above Icicle Creek – ALL the trails are straight up! Hiking into the light reminded me that, for us, this is as close to realizing the divine as we know. For Nancy and me, pristine wilderness, land unaffected by humans is religious, a medicine and tonic for the soul. It’s important to us in many ways, but mostly it serves as the realization that this will be here long after we’re gone. In a way, it’s a sense of immortality.

    We trailer camped in an almost-closed up KOA right in town, and Harry the Cat had a rather amazing experience one day. He had not the foggiest idea what these American turkeys were, but actually seemed like he wanted to become friends with them – even came out and rolled around on the ground in front of them. Any one of them could have laid him low, but I guess I’m happy to report that we’ve raised a ‘soft’ cat with some sense of morality – if not mortality. 

Harry-and-Turkeys

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.