Tag Archives: Marrowstone Island

featured, Nature Art, New Painting Post

Killisut Harbor – Oil on Canvas

I think this is a rare place. It almost looks like it could be a painting of a historic landscape, or painted centuries ago. It’s not, and the big Douglas-firs and red-cedars lining the shore (instead of houses) are real. It’s a ten-minute drive from my studio, just across the bridge at The Cut in Chimacum. A couple of years ago, a new, second bridge across the Killisut Channel replaced the stopped up culvert and that has now put this little piece of paradise back to what it was, salmon friendly and a most painterly-scene.

I found it interesting and challenging to paint how the tidal currents have eroded the banks, cutting off some old channels, slicing off an occasional point or two. Many artists would just look at this and paint it as if it’s an inert object – but I’ve always tried to read the story, not just the view. Maybe it’s my parent’s museum background – observe, question and verify. A very complex salt marsh (that’s the ‘grassy’ plant) that dominates this sometimes-submerged meadow.

This is an oil on canvas, 24″x 18″ and framed in a silver wooden frame as you see it. The frame is included, I’m also paying the freight if you buy it through Etsy. Outside measurements are about 29″ x 24″. It’s offered on my Etsy Gallery here: https://www.etsy.com/listing/4536397124/killisut-harbor-larry-eifert

No gallery changes, so it’s discounted accordingly (as usual).

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

Larry Eifert

Here is my Etsy site with my currently available paintings for easy sale.

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.

Nancy’s web portfolio of stunning photography and paintings.

And here to go to Virginia Eifert’s website.

Or Crater Lake Institute’s website which I also build – viewership of several million a month!

Commissioned paintings, New Painting Post, Washington State Parks

Using Art for Historic Fort Flagler

On top of everything else, I somehow fit these two paintings into 2022, a  year of many paintings. This park, Fort Flagler State Park, is on Washington’s Marrowstone Island, only 4 air-miles from our place near Port Townsend. It’s so close, how could I say no to learn more about my ‘hood’?

It’s a place that has relics from WW1, WW2, and many other improvements that have come along during the years – including after it became a state park. Sorting all that out was monumental, but thanks to Kelsey at State Parks, we figured out what to paint and what to leave out.  The above painting is about the fort and Admiralty Inlet, the waterway the fort is guarding.

The panel below is the same fort, but the housing area during WW2, an amazing ‘town’ of high-end barracks and homes, the power plant, stores and social buildings, parade grounds, the hospital and all the rest that was required when this was basically wilderness. No driving over to  the Food Co-op for kale, but the fort had huge gardens and probably acres of greens. I left out the Chinese laundry that was on the beach – imagine, all the wash was done using hot salt water!

Besides maps, I used my own site photos to figure all this out. I pieced it together, one building at a time, one street after the other. It wasn’t easy, but that’s why this stuff is still fun for me. I DID grow up in a museum. It’s in my blood.

Oh, and thanks to Sam W at state parks who keeps giving me these fun projects, who was also a great help dodging the gun-guys and their overly picky changes.

Above are my sketches with changes the historians came up with.  It’s just part of the process: I toss it out there as best I can, they all mutter and say “nice try, but”. As you can see, these finished panels are now installed and have become another part of the history of this place. It’s not just some of the best beaches and forest trails, but a really historic landscape.

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

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.