Tag Archives: Nancy Cherry Eifert

National Park Service, New Painting Post, People Paintings, Waysides

Lewis and Clark National Park – Installation

This is a long post, lots of photos, but I wanted to document this. In 2019, I was commissioned to do a series of paintings for the Dismal Nitch unit of Lewis and Clark National Park at the mouth of the Columbia River. Astoria is just across the river, the huge Megler Bridge is just to the west.  We were recently there and I took some photos of the installation, along with a big bronze sculpture that’s there as well.

This is the spot where the Corps of Discovery, fighting a stormy southerly with huge waves and rain, hunkered down for days. Aptly named, Dismal Nitch, it really is just that, a little nitch in the cliffs. Giant logs were banging together, they were almost out of food, soaked and cold. Their quest, the Pacific Ocean was almost in view, but here they were fighting for their lives.

This is an important place in America’s history, just before Lewis and Clark connected our country together, east and west, in early November of 1805.

Just prior to me in 2008, artists Gareth Curtiss and Bill Clearman installed this 6′ x 4′ bronze at the site, and I fell gratified to have my stuff in the same location. It’s a stunning bit of lost wax casting. My part of this was the design and illustrations of the wayside. Giving credit also to Rosene Creative from Georgia handled the top end of it, Faye Goolrick of Atlanta did the text and Eric Kittelberger from Cleveland did the final maps. It’s how these projects go, a nationwide effort.

To make this project even sweeter to me, in 1963, my mom published a book about Lewis and Clark and The Corp or Discovery for Dodd Mead in New York, 1962. It’s the story of the Corps and all the wildlife and botany they discovered – almost daily – on their three-year journey. And here I was, a half-century later, painting the same story.

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.

Backpacking, Hiking, Nancy Cherry Eifert, New Painting Post

Sheltering in Place, a Painting Campout

Down through the ’33’, a piece of forest that’s like a park. The name came from how much it cost.

Nancy and I are truly fortunate to have our own bit of nature here that’s big enough to actually camp in. Through the years, we’ve added to it, strategically bought chunks here and there, and now it’s a very tasty place to walk. So, since we’re supposed to stay home, how about a little backpack with Nancy as the supporting photographer and me as painter!

This patch of trilliums come up each spring, getting bigger each time and is at the start of a little loop that is really a complex bunch of deer trails. I have some new equipment, so, out we went with that new Six Moon Designs pack on to try out their new tent, a Lunar Duo. If I can’t do it up a mountain somewhere, I can try it out here.

Along the way, I tried to get a couple of small paintings going, just jestures  of how it felt here on a warm spring day in a forest I know better than any.  This huge big-leaf maple is a favorite of mine, a giant sprawling mass of life that changes each year as branches fall off in winter storms. A couple of years ago, a fawn was born here.

A little way down the deer trail this little scene unfolds. I made the trail a bit wider in the painting, hopefully the deer won’t notice.
My new Lunar Duo tent from 6 Moon Designs – a perfect tent for an old guy.

Here’s a little tent review for the Lunar Duo, a perfect ultralight two-person tent:

This tent is already a hit with me. Less than half the weight of my old standby, yet much bigger in size. For decades I’ve carried a free-standing tent, one with enough complicated poles that you wouldn’t want to put it together in the dark. The Lunar Duo comes in at 2.5lbs and uses one carbon fiber pole and my hiking stick, that’s it. (my old tent was about 6lbs. and had about 30 little poles all stuck together with bungies)

I’ve read this one takes some fiddling and adjusting to put it up, and requires ground soft enough for the titanium stakes, but that’s the same as the other one – I never camp on rocks and still had to connect it to the ground. With a floating floor, this was up in minutes and I was set for the night. The floating floor means it just floats around under you like a little water tight boat under a waterproof cover.

Thanks for reading this week. Stay well out there so you can join me in the next addition of this little journey. Art and nature, they go together well, even if you’re still at home.

All photos by Nancy Cherry Eifert using the old Nikon backpacking camera without post processing.

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.

Nancy Cherry Eifert, New Painting Post

A Chickadee and Blueberries – From Nancy

A new painting from Nancy, a tasty study of a chickadee and blueberries after an early frost. We have both the bird and berries right here in our meadow (along with an occasional frost), and the copper leaves this time of year make a nice painting. These little birds don’t eat the berries, instead, they hop around gleaning the insects and spiders that live among them.

This is new: We’re expanding the blog to also show Nancy’s paintings and photographs, as well as some other things going on here. Over the years, I’ve posted upwards of 500 of these pages. My new paintings will still be here as usual. Nancy’s painting style is reminiscent of mine, probably because we share a studio and she paints on some of my big paintings from time to time. Or, maybe it’s the other way around, I paint like Nancy.  While she has her own website at NancyCherryEifert.com, this blog has a nice readership – so I thought it would be meaningful to share what we do. This chickadee seems a good start. we both hope you like it.

Here’s the framed painting, photographed not 50 feet from the blueberry model it was painted from. These mountain blueberry leaves go from green to a pale yellow in fall, then immediately turn these bronze colors in a real show of color

This painting is available for sale. It’s framed like it shows here and the outside measurements are about 12″ x 15″. The acrylic painting is on board and is 6″x 9″.  It’s matted and framed under glass. Framed just as it looks here, it’s $175 plus some Priority Mail shipping. Just let us know if you’re interested by emailing us at either nancy@nancycherryeifert.com, or larry@larryeifert.com.

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.

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.

Commissioned paintings, Murals

Hoh Rainforest Visitor Center

We were out in the rainy Hoh Rainforest, commissioned to take installation photos by the project designer in Washington D.C. Nancy took some very tasty images and I thought I’d share them here. This project ended last summer, but no good photos existed of it, and project artists, designers and builders need these for examples to show for future adventures. This old guy just happened by for one of the shots. That’s a see-through painting of Mount Olympus on the right, a complex collection of forest floor paintings on the tabletop – and beyond is the real thing.

Look out the windows past the art and this is the view. Big Sitka spruce is what this beautiful place is all about. I feel fortunate to have my art here, an installation that will be enjoyed long after I’m gone from walking these trails.

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. Art, words and life from a former generation.

New Painting Post

Wet Winter Road

A new easel painting appeared between a couple of larger park projects. I continue to happily paint all these big public art pieces but it helps to create a bit of of whimsy on a smaller, looser scale. So, here’s a happy little place, at least for me. 

This painting is already sold, sorry. Just a show-and-tell here.

This painting was a collaboration with Nancy. We’ve never done this before, even after 25 years of working together on giant walls and making a living selling our individual efforts. We painted this together, each of us doing some, then the other moving forward and fixing the other’s deadends. I think it resulted in a refined and well thought-out painting. We might even try it again. Maybe next time I can get her to sign her name.

Over the years, I’ve learned a lot about color values and painting low winter light. It’s far more interesting than painting anything in summer – absolutely anything. It takes some time and thought to keep the image slanted over into a monochrome pallet of similar values, mix each with a bit of all the rest, and save the center-of-interest for the only intense place to blast away with slightly more color.

There are lots of layers in this painting, as you can see, but they’re all on a level of dullness to not get excited about. The road beckons the viewer to join us in a walk up the road, dodging puddles, to discover what’s just over the ridge.

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 here to go to Virginia Eifert’s website. Her books are now becoming available as Amazon Kindle books.