Tag Archives: Larry Eifert

Commissioned paintings, New Painting Post, Waysides, Wildlife

Art for Orcas – A Trail for the Mind

A second painting of the current five, funded by the Orca Recovery Plan for Washington State. This one is about the same watershed in Everett, WA as the last painting, but focuses on the way this little forest cleaned the water that runs through it. Just a 100 yards west from this location, the creek flows into Puget Sound, cleaner than when it was up in the urban city above it. Clean water helps orcas, salmon and the entire ecosystem, the the forest does this naturally, no help from us except to leave it alone.

And here’s the initial sketch, showing some of the areas where text will go. It’s simply a way to get started. I’ll show you the other three soon.

Change of pace: Fall  hiking and finding wildness.

While painting is my passion, so is hiking wild places. Always has been, all the way back to when I had to hold someone else’s hand to stay upright. So, that’s 70 years of looking for wild nature, and it’s still as important as it’s always been for my life, spirituality and sense of being who I am. We hiked a 5-mile out and back yesterday and returned feeling refreshed and with memories that stayed with me through the night – and right here on this page.

This collection of big-leaf maple leaves and probably one of the Psilocybe mushrooms is, for me, what a wild place is all about. It doesn’t have to be way out there (but that helps), alpine scree or giant mountains, but it’s more about finding places that haven’t been recently altered by humans. Just a small place will do, where leaves and the fall crop of fungi can make the place very special for me.

I may be in my 70’s, but these places just don’t get stale, don’t loose their thrill of absorbing the peace and well-being that nature brings. I’d like it very much if this short little essay resulted in a few more people out there, but if the trail is lonely, so much the better for us!

Thanks for reading this week.

Larry Eifert

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 – 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 100th Sculpin and Bobcat

This is my 48 North magazine page for the month about the Pacific Northwest. It occurred to me that I haven’t posted a single issue this year, what with all the other art flowing out of my studio!

This was the 100th story I’ve written for this magazine! I’ll say that again, the 100th monthly story, 8 1/2 years worth!! And there were lots of other stories they took before this caught on. Anyway, here’s the text that goes with number 100.

No other Northwest fish can match the amazing color changes of the Irish Lord. This bottomfish simply (well, simple for them, evidently) looks at their surroundings and immediately changes skin color AND pattern to match. Red coral, no problem – gray mud, they’ll turn gray – green seaweed and it’s a blotchy green fish. The eyes even change color and add texture and patterns, and that seems to be something few other camouflage creatures can do. It’s the shine of the eye that gives away the deer fawn’s existence, but for the Irish Lord – it will just float, frozen in place and looking like a mass of tube worms or anemones. This sit-and-wait trait also works well for their hunting skills, since even their prey can’t see them until it’s too late.

Irish Lords are large fish for sculpins and can reach 20” in length. They have unusually large eyes relative to their bodies and like most other sculpins, they’re only partially scaled. They live along all the coastal Pacific from Russia to Monterey, Ca in shallow water but down as deep as 1500 feet. Irish Lords gather in spawning areas once a year and it’s possible the same pairs return to the same spawning rocks season after season. The male builds the nest. These would be in places of high current and both parents guard the pinkish eggs until they hatch. The current might aid in dispersal when they’re most vulnerable and give the young a fin-up on success. These are beautiful fish and thanks to their spiny array aren’t sought after for food. Lucky for them, and lucky us when we can appreciate them alive.

Larry Eifert paints and writes about the Pacific Northwest from Port Townsend. His large-scale murals can be seen in many national parks across America, and at larryeifert.com.

Then this amazing photo of a friend, by a friend:
Nancy took this photo out our window recently. This bobcat comes around fairly often, goes after our squirrels but judging by the number still here, it’s not a great little hunter. Check out the size of that front paw in relation to its head. To have this sort of wildlife experience right here at home never ceases to make me appreciate the Olympic Peninsula. And, it makes me want to continue to express myself with paintings about it – as well as all the other places we go. I’m going to write more about this going forward. It’s a passion for life I’d like to share.

Thanks for reading this week.

Larry Eifert

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 – 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.

National Park Service, Waysides, Wildlife

Sol Duc Falls art and salmon

Each Fall, lots of people come here to Salmon Cascades on the Sol Duc River to see salmon jump. They take a million pictures, some paint. I can now say I’m the only one that did both (with an underwater camera, too), and my art stayed behind. Here we were just out for a look at salmon, and of course saw some, but we hadn’t been here since this wayside panel was installed. Fun to see my stuff here and I thought it turned out pretty well.

Below is one of my  underwater shots, much different than what I’d imagined it would look like down there. Colorful rocks, some organic color on the big stones. This is what the salmon see as they circle preparing to make the jump.

Below is the original sketch, the third design that the park eventually approved. That bottom fish is about life-sized in the final panel.

And here’s a little backstory about all this. In the 80’s, I was visiting parks to paint them for my gallery and others I was represented by, sold all I could produce, and then one day a collector of mine who also ran Redwood National Park told me in casual conversation: “Listen, you come to my park, you paint her, and then you take the art away. Why not keep the art in the park for others to enjoy?” It changed my life and was one of those few life-moments I can point to as a turning point. I did what he suggested, and it’s been a meaningful ride for me ever since doing just that. On the Sol Duc Road alone you can see 25 of my paintings along the way in the 17 miles up to Sol Duc Trailhead. 300 in the California redwoods. And it’s an amazing bunch of memories of working for and with people who only want to do what’s best for nature, not their own pocketbook. From Alaska to Florida – it’s a legacy I don’t take lightly.

Here’s the salmon cascades, but without the salmon. Just didn’t time the photo at the right time. It’s a good jump, but they all seem to make it eventually.

And at the end of the road and a short hike to the falls, but here’s the rebuilt cabin, the 1939 Canyon Creek Shelter at Sol Duc Falls. It’s on the National Register of Historic Places.  And the falls that stop all fish from getting to the upper reaches of the Sol Duc River.

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.

Washington State Parks, Waysides, Wildlife

Fort Worden State Park panels

Wow, I get to paint something local for a change. And the scenes are local, but these were actually painted on a picnic table on the other side of the Cascades at Lake Chelan State Park a few days ago.

These are two of six paintings for a trailside project at my local park, Fort Worden State Park, funded by the Friends of Fort Worden and state parks. The trail wonders beside Chinese Pond and then into a mixed-age conifer forest. These trail panels will be like a little gallery in the forest. It’s been fun to work on something much smaller than what I usually do. I’ll have more soon.

This second painting shows the pond in winter, Nootka roses without leaves or flowers, green grass and flocks of migrant widgeons. There was discussion of the deer – too close, too big, but if anyone has been to Port Townsend, they’d understand how critical it would be to add this one species – THE species here in town. Love them or hate them, it’s life for all of us here.

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.

Murals, National Park Service, Wildlife

Fort Matanzas National Monument – Florida

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.

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.

People Paintings, US Fish Wildlife Service, Waysides, Wildlife

Malheur – Swans and the Wadatika

This could be Malheur National Wildlife Refuge – possibly 1000 years ago when the Waditiki Indians lived here, fishing and hunting the marshes during high water periods. It’s from the perspective of the Trumpeter Swans, Canada geese and ducks the Indians hunted. Looking down through the birds you see the tule and cattail houses and boats, and people going about their daily lives. I like the feeling of a gigantic landscape with a very few humans touching the land lightly. How things have changed!

I finished this painting a few days ago for Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in eastern Oregon. This is one more of that series I’ve been working on seemingly forever, but this one I truly enjoyed, because there was so little guidance from anyone involved. This is another fairly big wayside, 60″ wide, that will be part of 3 at the Buena Vista Overlook south of Burns, Oregon. Here it is in the final form.

And here’s the original sketch of the main painting. Getting the feel of a made-up place, because who knows what it really looked  like then, what the Indians looked like, what they did or how many there were. I think I got it.

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.

Murals, US Fish Wildlife Service, Waysides, Wildlife

Malheur – Buena Vista Overlook

I’ve been working on art for Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in eastern Oregon, a continuing effort that’s finally coming together. This wayside panel I just finished is going there, telling the story of springtime water vs. fall desert. It’s been interesting to compare the two scenes – which is a completely fabricated scene. No such place exists, yet it’s at Malheur in many places.

This view is of the spring snowmelt season there, when water from the local mountains fill up this grand valley with ponds and marshes. These lakes are only a couple of feet deep at most, many are less, but the place is crammed with birds either nesting or on their way north. It’s possibly the single most important wildlife refuge in the West.

And this scene shows the same place a few months later. The lakes have dried to an almost desert landscape and the lush foliage of spring has yellowed. It was interesting to figure this out – just the cattails were challenging to understand their life-cycle.

And here is where this and two other waysides are going – Buena Vista Overlook. My new paintings will replace these old and tired ones atop a stunning view of the valley below. These are big panels, each five feet wide. They needed to be big to compete with the scene.

Call this my small effort at using art to fight our current culture of White Terrorists in America. This is the place the Bundy Gang of Thugs took over a few years ago in a Right-wing attack on our heritage. Remember? Yes, this place is OUR heritage – and then the Trump administration  pardoned them when they were sentenced for their crimes. Not enough said – but if you want to save what’s left of these places, VOTE for nature!

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.

Giclee prints, Murals, National Park Service

New – Canvas Prints from Murals

Yellowstone National Park, Grand Prismatic Hot Springs

I’ve been getting many requests for one-off prints of my larger paintings. Call us disorganized, I guess, but we emptied the lock box of about 100 transparencies and digital scans, and now I  have  a new section on the website for giclee prints of paintings. Many of these can be printed wall-sized, I mean 7 to 10 feet wide, but most requests I get are more in the 3 to 4 feet size. So, if you want to see what I have up here so far, check out the ever-expanding list. Hopefully I’ll have around 100  or more when I’m finished. Some haven’t been seen in decades (I haven’t even seen them in decades either, and some are really pretty good).

Here’s another that was painted for The Nature Conservancy at Great Salt Lake. The original art is in their visitor center there, but few have seen it. It would make a pretty good canvas print, don’t you think.

Again, here’s the link to the current list.

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, Waysides, Wildlife

Rosario Tide Pools

I just polished these three outdoor wayside panels for Washington State Parks. Soon they’ll be installed at Rosario Beach, Deception Pass State Park near Anacortes, right on the beach at one of the most heavily-explored tide pool areas in Washington. The three paintings tell the stories of how the tide works to create this amazingly rich ecosystem, how people messed it all up with boots and flip-flops – and finally how to walk here without screwing it up again.

I want to show you the third panel, the one about their rope path. These tide pools were decimated by thousands of feet, but the park stretched a yellow rope out to the best pools and signs (like this one) tell people to ‘Follow the Ropes”. It worked, amazingly enough, and the tide pool life returned – crabs and anemones, kelp and sculpins. It was such an easy idea, and now the place is returning to normal. Seeing this is one of the many reasons I still get a charge out of painting art for public places.

These panels are 36″ x 24″ and will be made of high-pressure laminate and probably last longer than I will.

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.

Commissioned paintings, Murals, New Painting Post, Waysides, Wildlife

Lime Kiln and Orca Whales

I received some installation photos for my Lime Kiln Point Lighthouse paintings. Everyone seems to like them, so I thought I’d share it all here for the record. I painted these last winter for Washington State Parks with EDX Exhibits in Seattle. Installation and these photos were by Marius at Doty Signs in Seattle.

This lighthouse is THE place to watch orca whales up close in the wild. There’s possibly no place on Earth you can get closer to wild whales without getting on a boat, and in summer, people line the shoreline here to watch the killer whale families feeding on salmon right in front of them. This is a big deal since the southern population of orcas is endangered and it’s not looking good for a recovery. It’s a thrilling experience to see them, and I’m proud to say my stuff now explains what people are looking at. Plus, there are one or two really nice looking pieces of art!

This is sort of a big deal for me, too, as new rules don’t allow boats to approach these endangered animals, leaving Lime Kiln as the best viewing in the Northwest. It’s also a place I know well, since I had “October”, my 40-foot sloop tied in nearby Friday Harbor in the ’80s – my ‘painting platform’ as I sailed from San Diego to Alaska and most places in between. I have history here. Nancy and I, decades later aboard our 45′ floating home ‘Rumpy’ came by here one afternoon and watched in amazement as an entire orca family slowly swam directly beneath our boat (engine off). One of the big males was bigger than our boat, but they minded their manners and didn’t touch us.

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.