Tag Archives: Interpretive Panels

New Painting Post, Uncategorized

Pulse of the River Wayside Panel

(image should enlarge with a click)

We’ve been away on a field trip to the Shulman Bristlecone Pine Grove near Bishop, CA for some new paintings soon to come – so I don’t have a fresh painting this week. But it’s glorious Fall here now, with the maples and alders loosing their leaves – so here’s a wayside panel I just received the digital file for. It’s already installed, but I had never seen this in its final digital form.

This one is installed at the same location it was modeled after, right along the river. As you can see in the photo, snow was still on the ground when I did the field research, but along the way the painting turned into a Fall scene with bronzed vine maple and returning salmon. Paintings can do that, while photography has a more difficult time – which means I still have a great job because of it.

Thanks for reading this week.
Larry Eifert

Click here to go to the online blog this was to.

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

Click here to check out what Nancy’s currently working on with her photography.

New Painting Post, Uncategorized

An Eifert Look to the Marine Life Center

Feiro Marine Life Center gets a dozen Eifert exhibit panels and new “look”.

 (Click the image and it should enlarge)

The Feiro Marine Life Center in Port Angeles Washington. We’ve been working on this for a seven months now, and it’ll be probably another year before it’s completed, but I thought I’d pass some of it around here today.

The place needed some freshening up, so they asked us to help. Much of this is centered around the ‘big deal’ that’s coming down locally in Olympic National Park – the removal of the Elwha River dams, largest dam removal in the US to date – and it really is a big deal, at least around here and at least for me. I’ve been involved with the dams project for several years now as a provider of art showing what the river will look like post-dams, so it was logical I also help create some exhibits about it at the Feiro. Here’s a link to some of that other Elwha River work.

The image above is only the quickie-watercolor concept sketch, but I thought it interesting enough to pass around. Everyone sees the finished products – complex paintings or big visitor center exhibits – but few see where it starts, the basic skin and bones of ideas. And while it may (read: probably) not end up this way at all, it’s a good view into the creative process. So here goes: This wall is actually three times longer than this. It goes off to the left where there are also windows, so to keep it simple, I just focused on this area for a concept sketch. The sign is all they really requested, which includes a changing banner up top for programs. I’ll do all that here in the studio, but the rest will likely be done on-site. We went to the big Seattle Aquarium for some field research into how kelp and fish look underwater, how fish circle, and how light filters down into the ocean. The two herring balls – thousands of little fish circling for protection, will mimic the oval sign, and the octopus encircling the sign shows a popular critter they have in their tanks. There will be more and larger fish, likely salmon, and more extensive bull kelp, but this shows the basic idea.

Stay tuned, I’ll send more as this goes along.

For local readers: Nancy is opening a show of her photography at Gallery Nine in Port Townsend Saturday night, 5:30 to 8pm. Come on down and see her new work.

Thanks for reading this week.
Larry Eifert

Click here to go to the online blog this was to.

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

Click here to check out what Nancy’s currently working on with her photography.

New Painting Post, Uncategorized

Visiting My Old-growth Friend

Ohanapecosh Visitor Center – Mount Rainier National Park (click photo to enlarge)

Last week we were over at Mount Rainier and Mt St Helens for a field trip and stopped by the Rainier visitor center where one of my old-growth murals is installed. We hadn’t been there since the Great Flood of 2006 that closed the park for 6 months, and while there remains evidence everywhere of the 18″ of rain in 36 hours, the v.c. looks great. I have never taken good photos of this installation, so Nancy spent some time there doing just that while I filled out some paperwork on annual mural maintenance for the NPS Rangers.

This mural was painted in the Spring of 1995, making it over fifteen years old now. I’m happy to say it looks just as vibrant as when it was installed. It’s acrylic on MDO plywood, and while it was for Ohanapecosh, the forest itself was modeled after the wetter Carbon River Forest over on the opposite side of the mountain. I involved interpretive staff from the other two ‘big’ parks nearby, Olympic and North Cascades, because we wanted to make sure it fit all three. We also planned to create posters, puzzles and cards to sell at all these parks, so species had to fit for all of them. One park has lots of elk, another none, so no elk. Grouse or not? It wasn’t until one guy saw one on the way to work that the grouse was IN. It went that way with about 30 species until everyone was happy – except the painter who didn’t get to paint any elk.

And me? I’m now happy that after 15 years those posters and puzzles are still selling well in all three parks (and many others, including the major redwood parks in California). I’m sure the Rainier non-profit that funded the original painting (and sells the products) has, by now, actually made a profit off the painting they commissioned. And the Chief of Interpretation that originally gave me the commission? He’s retired and lives here in Port Townsend – and has crewed for me in a few sailboat races. It’s a small world that is endlessly big.

Thanks for reading this week.
Larry Eifert

Click here to go to the online blog this was to.

Click here to go to our main website – packed with jigsaw puzzles, prints, interpretive portfolios and lots of other stuff. You can find this poster and puzzle here if you dig.

Click here to check out what Nancy’s currently working on with her photography.

New Painting Post, Uncategorized

Art in the Old-growth

(Click to enlarge so you can read the text by Janet Scharf, Olympic NP)

‘An art gallery in the woods,’ that’s what I like to call these paintings.

Thanks to the kind folks at the park, I now have 24 paintings, well, reproductions of them, scattered along the road in Olympic National Park’s Sol Duc Valley. This one was one of the first, and until recently I didn’t have a digital file of it for my portfolio. The fabricator finally sent it to me, so now I’m passing it along to all of you. It tells the story of the unseen-by-us happenings in the old-growth when the sun goes down, how all sorts of critters appear and carry on their lives when we’ve all gone home for the day. In the foreground, a flying squirrel is diggin’ ‘shrooms and upon hearing the rustle of forest duff, a northern spotted owl begins its predatory plunge from a high perch. The black-tailed deer is browsing oxalis and isn’t aware of the mountain lion’s stealthy approach. And the marbled murrelet is coming home on the last flight of the day, returning to it’s mossy nest with a load of herring for it’s chick from the distant Pacific 20 miles away.

I’ve always liked the idea of using my paintings to present an interpretive idea or story about nature. I learn about it. I paint it. I pass it along to the next guy. Outdoor fabrication technology is pretty good these days, so this panel will last for decades unless a 500,000-pound tree falls on it (which has happened). I love the thought of a car full of visitors driving up this beautiful road, eyes open in wonder at the scenery and pulling off to read this wayside panel – and suddenly they’re immersed in a painting telling a story about nature they never knew about. I think art should teach and inspire – and then move the viewer to positive future actions. Is this art? I’d say it is.

Thanks for reading this week.
Larry Eifert

Click here to go to the online blog this was posted to.

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

Click here to check out what Nancy’s currently working on with her photography. She has new work up of her garden after a morning rain.

New Painting Post

Carson River Mural Unveiling

This week I finished up another large-scale habitat mural for a new visitor center along the Carson River in Nevada. This vibrant place, just below the High Sierra front and southeast of Lake Tahoe, has always been important to wildlife, and to me. I consider it one of the most beautiful and interesting places in the West.

As the winter snows melt off these great mountains in spring, this water runs off into the valley and eventually out into the Great Basin where it evaporates with summer heat. Along the way, vernal pools and backwater pockets are filled with rushes and cattails, providing fabulous habitat for birds that make wildlife-watching wonderful. I’ve gotten to know this area pretty well, as I’ve also painted another, similar painting just north of this for the Lahanton Valley National Wildlife Refuge. In some small way, I’m always hoping my work will open some eyes, change some hearts and minds and possibly, just possibly, make it so these beautiful landscapes (and fictitious paintings) will both continue past my lifetime.

I wrote two other posts for this one as the project progressed. Here’s the original sketch (these open in separate browser windows) and here’s the half-way image showing the development of details. It’s kind of fun to see all three stages because things always change as I go along. For example, I added a yellowthroat and a Savannah sparrow to the final – and they’re not in the second stage painting.

And below is the initial reference photo I developed the painting from. Supplied by the client (and, thank you, Anne), you can see how far from reality these big paintings stray. Still, there are basic elements here that remained the same, making it a recognizable place. I like to say this photo was the launching pad, but where the final painting landed, no one knew – especially me!

Thanks for reading this week.
Larry Eifert

Click here to go to our main website – packed with jigsaw puzzles, prints, interpretive portfolios and lots of other stuff. To see more than 50 other murals like this, click here.

Click here to check out what Nancy’s currently working on with her photography.

Murals

Carson River Mural Beginnings


 This should enlarge if you click it. If that goes nowhere, click the blog here and do the same.

Last week I sent out the sketch for this painting. A commission for a non-profit, this painting is for their new visitor center. The scene isn’t exactly accurate as to the way it truly is, but hopefully will give the viewer a ‘sense of place’. I have a nice little singing marsh wren painting I’ve also done to warm up for this, which I’ll send in a few days.
In the meantime, I’ll tell you how this is going. The painting isn’t as large as many I do like this, maybe 3’x5′. At this size, it’s large enough that I can get some details in, and small enough so it won’t take a month to paint. I first put down several coats of a very dark brown (almost black) base, so when I paint this up to lighter colors, it hopefully looks like a landscape just emerging from night. Those dark areas around the bottom will soon disappear. You see the High Sierra Front (east side of Lake Tahoe area) is almost finished. It’s on the west side of the Carson Valley, putting early morning light right on these high peaks. They’d shine like crazy when that morning light hits them.
I paint these things from the background to foreground, usually top to bottom, so the mountains go in first as you can see, then the area slightly closer to the viewer, and so on, but to give me a sense of the entire composition, you’ll see some critters outlined or just roughed in. This helps me figure out what the final image might look like. This photo was taken yesterday, so today it’s much farther along, but why waste time photographing it? Let’s get back to work.
Thanks for reading this week.
Larry Eifert

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

Click here to check out what Nancy’s currently doing.

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You can also leave comments on the blog here. Every little bit helps me understand how to be a better painter.

Murals

Welcome to Sol Duc Valley

Since this wayside panel is being printed this month, I thought I’d pass it on here. I published another one of these back on November 8th, and you can see it here. For this project, I painted 21 paintings for 3 panels at Olympic National Park’s Sol Duc Valley entry kiosk. With the others last year, that makes 24 images you can see while driving the 17 miles from national park gate to road’s end where a trail leads to this grand waterfall – Sol Duc Falls. At 4′ x 6′, these are pretty large panels.

So what? Well, I like to call these efforts “public art galleries in our parks”, and I now have hundreds of these things in parks, preserves and wildlife refuges around the West. You’re hiking or driving along, and suddenly there’s a piece of art and a small story to tell you, or interpret, what you’re seeing. It’s just a great way to experience a beautiful place, and, I hope, to heighten your experience beyond what nature is providing (if that’s possible). These panels don’t use the original art itself, but are always fabricated out of fiberglass, stainless steel or a Formica product, so they’ll probably last longer than I will. I’d like to image someone coming along decades from now and stumbling over one of these things – and having it enhance their day.

Thanks for reading this week.
Larry Eifert

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

Click here to check out what Nancy’s currently doing.

Or, send us an email to opt in or out of our email group – or just ‘talk’ with us.

New Painting Post

Ancient Bristlecone Pines mural

Finally, I got this puppy finished up. It was quite a handful with lots of other work coming and going through the studio. If you click on the image, it should enlarge. If not, go here to the blog.

This is destined for The Crater Lake Institute, that, through the years, has commissioned me for many of these types of paintings. Next summer we’ll have products like puzzles available, but there’s lots of design work to do before that happens.

When I sent out the sketch for this awhile ago, I received lots of mail about where to see these trees and just how to do a painting like this. The 3′ x 5′ painting is on hardboard so I had a smooth surface to begin with. I primed it with dry-brush latex to rough it up slightly, making for good textural effects. These are worked up from the back forward, so the foreground flowers are the last to go in, and there’s lots of hidden stuff in that foreground. I recently put up a page on the main website with a page of murals. There’s currently about 50 for you to see, so check it out here.

SO: Where can you see these bristlecones (that DO have bristled cones)? Well, you’re not going to this time of year, but if you’re looking for a great trip next summer, check out the bristlecones east of Bishop CA in the Whites or at Great Basin National Park way out near Ely Nevada, or Brice Canyon National Park in Utah. They’re high-elevation trees – at 10,000 feet or so on dry windswept ridgetops in limestone, a place where nothing else can easily grow. It’s worth a trip to walk beneath the oldest trees on the planet, some dated to almost 5,000 years of age. Even the downed branches are beyond my comprehension – some have been dated back 9,000 years from the present. To put that into context, the woolly mammoth was still around then!

Here’s the original pencil sketch:

Thanks for reading this week.
Larry Eifert

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

Click here to check out what Nancy’s currently doing. There’s some good new stuff here on her blog about the Day of the Dead Celebration in Seattle.

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Murals

Artist’s Sketch – Bristlecone Pine mural sketch #2

Ancient Bristlecone Pines
This is straight from the artist’s studio.
You’re receiving this weekly email blog because a friend or associate thought you’d like these occasional postings. This is from Larry Eifert, long-time artist and writer, the guy who has more art in America’s National Parks than any other. These postings show some of the personal inner workings of an artist creating everything from large wall murals to smaller easel canvases. All are about America’s Nature. To not receive these emails any more, simply hit reply and write “unsubscribe” in the subject line.

Bristlecone-sketch

If you click on the image, it should enlarge. If not, go to the blog here.

And so: For years, I’ve wanted to paint the ancient bristlecones of the high and dry western desert mountains. Thought I had it at Wheeler Peak, Great Basin National Park (where I experienced as close to a spiritual moment as I’ve ever had), then later at Utah’s Bryce Canyon, but budget problems or scheduling always got in the way. Now, thanks to a nut (and NOT a pine nut) burning down the visitor center in the Shulman Grove of California’s White Mountains just east of the High Sierra, and the generosity of the Crater Lake Institute that is spearheading a high-elevation pine interpretive program, I’m having a go at the most iconic and picturesque grove of them all.

Here’s an updated version of the initial sketch that has changes from comments from all the bristlecone-pros.

This image shows two ancient trees, both possibly 4500 years of age and living at 10,000 feet of elevation in a super-dry limestone mountain landscape. The bits of dead trees strewn around the ground could be thousands of years older still. Birds and animals shown all live here, at least during the warmer months, bringing the only other sounds to this stark and beautiful landscape besides the singing winds through branches and past needles. It’s quite a place.

As I did with the similar whitebark pine painting last year, I’ll send an update on the progress of this one next week. This is going to be fun.

Thanks for reading. If you’re received this in error, we apologize.
Larry

We have posters and jigsaw puzzles of the last “High-Five” painting (whitebark pine = five-needled high-mountain pine).
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Waysides

Angel Island State Park and the Marin Conservation League

MCL-blog

Sorry to say I somehow hit the “send” button instead of the “save” button. I just had ‘words’ with my computer!

So, here’s the rest of the story.

The Marin Conservation League is celebrating their 75th anniversary, and they wanted me to create a 24″ x 36″ panel on Angel Island commemorating this. Angel Island State Park is on the north side of San Francisco Bay. I once anchored there and walked the trails. It’s a great place, and thanks to the foresight of Caroline Livermore and others, I got to do that.

And now, almost 30 years later, I was able to tell that story of how the park came to be.

The back story is another matter. Since I couldn’t actually go to the location, I had to cook up a bit of art for this, using web photos and some artistic license. That’s the bottom piece of art that’s 36″ wide. The photo of Caroline Livermore was another issue. The only photo provided was a blurry low resolution black and white snapshot. I took this into Photoshop, blew it up, printed it out and then painted it with colored pencils. Who knows what color that dress actually was, but now it’s red. I think it works pretty well.

Sorry you got two of these emails. Technology runamuck!
Thanks for reading this week.
Larry Eifert

Click here to see a bunch of other outside exhibit panels.

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

Click here to check out what Nancy’s currently doing.

Or, send us an email to opt in or out of our email family – or just ‘talk’ with us.

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