These are my most recent small oil studies, plus a few still available, all painted in the past couple of months. Some have been shown here before, some not. They’re all on canvas board and varnished. Painting sizes are all the same, 5″x7″. The outside frames measure 7″x9″. They are all framed as you see them here.
The idea process here was a tiny bird on a big tree. These little woodpeckers, only 6″ long weigh less than an ounce. They make great painterly subjects because the darker whites seem to change a bit with the seasons. This one was on the big Douglas-fir right outside our studio porch. Those are little wisps of old-man’s beard lichen in the upper corner.
Lots of Columbian black-tailed deer here. Walking on a local trail in Port Townsend, I became sort of lost in the masses of rose hips on the Nootka roses I was passing. Amazing colors this time of year (early spring), and in places the branches are starting to turn purplish red with spring flush of juice. When I got back in the studio I started playing around with some samples I broke off to take. She was in the thicket, too.
I’m greeted each morning by several of these little feisty squirrels as they await me to toss some sunflower seeds on the big tray feeder. Brazen little creatures, they’re not so easy to paint. In summer, they seem a bit more brown, winter coat is more gray – an adaptation to owl safety, maybe.
Lots going on in this little painting, maybe because I didn’t want to leave the place lodged in my mind. This is a trail I’ve been on many times! It takes the hiker up past Royal Lake and into a truly sensational alpine area. Surrounded by some of the tallest peaks in the Olympic Mountains, I have wandered here wishing I’d just become a marmot so I wouldn’t have to leave. I tend to paint these trail images from memory, often in winter when I can’t get there physically.
House finches have this odd way of looking down their beaks, as if they’re twisting sideways to see better. It’s almost like they’re judging me. But just try to paint one doing this. Not sure I got it correct, but I liked the colors a lot. That’s Carmine Lake paint, by the way, a color not to be forgotten.
When it fell, this was probably the biggest alder we have have here – and it was already dead when it collapsed of rot and time. I was looking at it not long ago and noticed how nicely the log was providing nest holes and insects for the birds – and so I painted this little story-painting about it. The chickadee really was there, bouncing around the new plants growing on the log’s top.
These are all priced like the others at $95 each, framed. Shipping will be USPS and will add a bit more, but the cost of shipping is fairly low. Email me if you’re interested in knowing more. larryeifert@gmail.com
You might have missed the other posts of these little oils, but I’ve been doing these to test different mixes of medium, linseed oil, thinner and driers like cobalt and Liquin. I’m still not ‘there’ yet with it, but making these small paintings has been very fun for me – and having painted full-time for so many decades now, I find it amazing it can still feel fresh. So, I’m continuing on with new efforts.
Here’s a link to the few others that are still unsold. https://larryeifert.com/wordpress/current-originals-for-sale/
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.
Click here to go to our main website and see my other original paintings currently for sale:
https://larryeifert.com/wordpress/current-originals-for-sale/
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!
