Tag Archives: Fort Matanzas National Monument

Commissioned paintings, Murals, National Park Service, New Painting Post

Fort Matanzas National Monument mural

April 24, 2020 Brush Man

Edging in towards final approval for this project has been going since my site visit last summer. This makes the third painting I’ve finished for National Park Service maps, and the list couldn’t be any different: Point Reyes California , El Malpais New Mexico, this one – and Glacier National Park in Montana is scheduled this summer.

This close-up section which should enlarge if you click on it. Here’s the brief back story: a highway now runs right through this scene, cutting the park in half. So, it was decided to make it look like it was 200 years ago – no highway, but all the same critters. Fort Matanzas is an old Spanish coastal fort, the reason for the park, but it’s also the LAST undredged river estuary on the entire east side of Florida – so they wanted a mural of nature instead of human history.

This will soon be the back of the park map, a publication that will be in the hands of about everyone who visits, then sticks it in the glove compartment of the rental car, takes it home.

And here’s the fort, cannons and all – including the barracks inside. The sketch below was drawn soon after I was there.

The site visit: Below is what happens when you take a camera from an air conditioned rental car into the 96% humidity of Florida in summer. Imagine a job that daily puts you out here with life jackets and bullet proof Kevlar vests – some of the rangers carried towels to constantly dry off with.

I learned a lot about this place. The sand here is a beautiful mix of shells and white powder. One of the ranger gave me an session in how it’s made. Coquina sand, the yellow s stuff is what becomes of these golden shells after they’re ground up in the surf, and of course that story had to be in the painting too. After 100 changes to the original art as we went along, I actually think it’s finished!

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Murals, National Park Service, Wildlife

Fort Matanzas National Monument – Florida

September 17, 2019 Brush Man

Fort Matanzas National Monument is getting an Eifert painting.
I was recently in Florida, south of Saint Augustine at Fort Matanzas National Monument. Boy was it hot. So hot, some of the rangers actually carried towels to help dry off, the humidity was so amazing. Of course, a big camera is a big help, so it stayed cool in the car – and then each time I got out – BANG, the humidity would hit that cold camera and I couldn’t see out of it for five minutes.

I was there to research a mural that’s coming along now for the back or their park map. So, each year, some 650,000 people will get to take an Eifert painting home with them when they visit.

I got the job done, met some great people and came back to the cool Northwest – 30 degrees cooler – and have started down the path of building one of these big paintings. While the original idea was to show the nature of this place, an ecosystem very much like what it was 200 years ago when the fort was active, we veered course at the last moment and now I’m painting it as if it IS 200 years ago. As far as the wildlife is concerned, it’s about the same – amazing for a place surrounded by humans.

Above, I’m getting a royal tour by some guys that have been here decades. Between them, I’ll bet there’s 60 years of experience here – and the fourth was so smart I kept saying ‘ahhh’, or ‘ohhh’ when I realized she was far brighter than me. That’s a LOT of knowledge going along with me to help, and I really soaked it up. It’s what I do this crazy stuff for, the experiences – and this was a good one.

Here’s a view from the fort top, overlooking cannon that actually fire and looking out on the inlet it guarded. It’s a landscape altered by hurricanes, but it’s also the ONLY undredged river inlet on the entire eastern side of Florida. I let THAT sink in a bit, then sharpened my pencil.

Thanks for reading this week.