Tag Archives: Elk

The Neighborhood – a new painting

2023-3-11 “The Neighborhood” is an acrylic painting on canvas, 30″ x 40″. It’s a little story about the communities of wildlife on the Olympic Peninsula where we live – paint. This has been on my easel for awhile, changing and evolving, sort of like the critters, themselves. We’ve seen over 90 different species here in our forest, but so far not a single elk.

No preliminary sketches were made for this painting – it was laid out as I went along, placing the elk’s nose right in the center-of-interest and everyone else radiated out from there. I set the stage for a place a bit more wet than here in dry-Port Townsend, a rainforest commonly seen just west of here.

Below are some closeup shots of the details.

I made a funny little video of my process with this painting – it’s up now on my YouTube Channel. I think it’s important to be able to laugh at yourself and this one brought tears. Damned easel. I didn’t do much editing to preserve the absurdity of it.

I go into this in my video on my channel here. There are others, too.

Or here: https://youtu.be/Dj3gCVx2U6A

This painting started out as a deer painting, then it quickly evolved into an elk and after remembering the giant bull elk (two of them) I almost ran into last summer not 2 miles from here. It grew into a full-blown ecosystem effort with many critters, all of which are here in our forest – except the spotted owl. That bird has been replaced by a similar character (barred owl) that might take my head off any minute.

Below: besides the elk, there’s a Pacific wren, two black-headed grosbeaks (they nest here in the forest), a downy woodpecker and snowshoe hare.

This painting is 30″ x 40″ acrylic on canvas and is available for sale. Email me at larry@larryeifert.com for information. Framed as you see it here, I’m asking $2300 framed, normal price for this size. No gallery fees.

And we also have this darker frame. Shipping is extra, but we have the crate ready to go.

I also did some still photography of the studio recently for my videos. Here’s a fun shot of the interior where I spend many hours of my life. It should enlarge with a click.

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

I’ve been adding new videos to my YouTube Channel here. Most are about my painting process, shot in my studio.

Larry Eifert

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Backwater on the Hoh

We’ve spent the better part of two weeks camping along Olympic National Park’s Hoh River, and I have a bunch of fun mixed media paintings to report. We’re home now, watering some very thirsty tomatoes, yanking out the gone-to-seed stuff we forgot about – and trying to figure out how to return to the West End for a few days more. Probably won’t happen soon, because there are some very patient people waiting for us to do our art-tricks – and we thank you. What? This little watercolor and ink created on my lap in the camp chair while I was being eaten alive by the moskies isn’t art-trick enough? Well, the spash of paint followed up by a dead run to the camper was a pretty good trick. “Moskies” was what I heard a Brit call the evil Hoh River mosquitoes. Pretty good name.

This ORIGINAL painting is watercolor and ink on paper , 8″ x 10″ and $140 unframed.
The dark mahogany frame with a double mat and glass makes it a total of $180 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 if you’re interested.

AND……………..

 

Here’s a friend that came by the campsite to visit one evening. We’ve not seen such a perfect bull elk  up close and personal in years. Had to have been 1200 lbs and not a mark on him. I guessed from ground to antler top was at least 8.5 feet, and you sure didn’t want to stand in his way as he came past. At the closest point he was about 15′ from us, and the tree I was hiding behind seemed pretty darned small. Olympic NP has the largest unmanaged elk herd in the country, and this guy truly seemed ‘unmanaged.’ Whooie.

Thanks for reading this week.
Larry Eifert

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

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