Tag Archives: Parks

New Published Story, Posts about other stuff

Crater Lake Institute – a side project

I’ve not posted anything about this small side project, but it’s far enough along for me to brag a bit. For the past year, I’ve been rebuilding the Crater Lake Institute’s web presence. Currently, it stands at 3588 pages and counting. That’s right, 3588 pages.

Who and what? Crater Lake Institute is a group that works to enhance Crater Lake National Park, Oregon in many ways. They’ve collected more historic stuff about this park than anyone, bought equipment for the nationally-recognized Ski Patrol, commissioned over a dozen murals of my art for many places around the West, hosted rim-side interpretive walks, created publications about the park no one else has even considered doing. The board (that I now am on) is a bunch of retired NPS folks, amazing in their knowledge of this beautiful place.

I was approached to rebuild a very aging and almost dead website – but little did I realize how massive this thing was. In fact, it’s the largest digital and free collection of Crater Lake material anywhere. Huge sections are here on what to do in the park, Geology, Natural History, Oral Histories, Art, Weather, a giant collection of historic photos, stories, newspaper accounts going back into the 1800’s. I’ve also added my art here and there, sprinkled it with magic dust and – Oh, I could go on!

Because of this, the never-tiring park-painter has learned more about Crater Lake than probably any park I’ve ever worked on. Just ask me about the hand grenade death in the 80’s, the secret trails few park people even know about, the inside scoop on more stuff than my little brain can handle. And the best part is that I’ve gotten to know founder and board president Ron Mastrogiuseppe, fondly known as M13, one of the most genuine and interesting park people I’ve come across.

CLI-home-page-2
More of the front page

Thanks for reading this week.

Spend a moment and look at the site – then tell me what you think. http://craterlakeinstitute.com
Larry Eifert

Here’s the blog on the web.  And 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 beautiful photographs

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

New Painting Post

Sunset Hike – an original acrylic painting

Sunset Hike – click to enlarge

I did this painting a couple of months ago, but it never made it to the blog here, so . . .

I was by myself, coming back from a day in the Upper Royal Basin meadows and walking down to meet Nancy at the campsite.  I came through a bit of open space in the meadows on the bench below Royal Lake.  I’ll bet some of you know this area where the first good campsites await after a bunch of miles on that hot upslope trail.

The late-afternoon light was just blasting through these trees and really lighting up the grass – like spotlights were back in the silver firs. I was just spending way too much energy admiring it when I tripped on a rock, and down I went into the grass. Good time to get the camera out, and this painting is what happened later.

It’s such a sweet memory of a great experience that I’m keeping it for myself, and THAT doesn’t happen very often.

Thanks for reading this week.
Larry Eifert

Here’s the blog on the web.  And 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 beautiful photographs

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

New Painting Post

Where Is This? A Little Travel Quiz

Yuming-Yang-commission

Private commission, sold. Click the image and it’ll enlarge in your browser.

This week it’s a test for those Northwest-Coast-hikers and lovers of all things rainforest and wilderness coast. Where is this? Big wild beach, sea stacks, big river coming down from snow-covered mountains, old-growth forest. Nope, not Canada. There are some tiger lilies, a few lupine and false soloman seal to round it out. But where is it? Get it right and I’ll send you a free park jigsaw puzzle of your choice.

 

This is a commission for a buyer of mine who lives in Texas. Used to live here in the Seattle area, loves the Northwest, but is now stuck in a place so unlike the Northwest he’s been purchasing my paintings to remind him where his heart really is. Thanks, Yuming, it was a lot of fun.

And thanks for reading this week. Send this to someone who might appreciate what I’m painting and tell them to sign up. I’m trying to expand my list. An email will work.
Larry Eifert

Here’s the blog on the web.And 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 beautiful photographs

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

New Painting Post

Through the Old Burn

Throught-the-Burn

Must  have burned decades ago, because the new trees were closing in on making it a real forest again. It sure looked like woodpecker- heaven to me. Those old scarred sentinels were just too good to pass up, so I took a quick reference photo – and here’s a painting of it months later. Problem is, I couldn’t FIND the reference photo, so just painted how it ‘felt’ instead of anything about how it actually ‘looked’. Maybe I was ‘seeing’ instead of just ‘looking’ when I first saw it, because I think I ‘got it’.

Throught-the-Burn-framed

This ORIGINAL painting is acrylic on board, 6″ x 9″ and $145 framed. Outside edge of the frame is about 12″ x 15″.

This custom frame has a triple liner and glass. Shipping adds just a bit more depending on your zone. This is the original painting, NOT a print.
Email us for details.

Thanks for reading this week.
Larry Eifert

Here’s the blog on the web.And 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 beautiful photographs

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

Posts about other stuff

Just A Small Piece of Art I Often See!

Trail-sign

I can’t even remember when I did this, but some years ago I designed the logo for the Olympic Discovery Trail. This trail more or less follows the old railroad grade from Port Townsend, 120 miles all the way across the north Olympic Peninsula to La Push on the outer coast. I donated the stylized art that featured some trees, mountains and a cresting wave – all the components of nature you might see on the trail.

The thing is, we see this little piece of art on many hikes and many places, especially in winter when we’re walking the low country. Walking along, I spy these little blue signs on posts or trees and it makes me feel a part of this place, a small and insignificant thing to be sure, but still a part of it. I make a living selling art, that’s for sure, but there are sometimes other rewards than painting for my bread and butter. This is one of them.

And there’s a bit more. Parts of this beautiful trail are also part of the 1200-mile Northwest National Scenic Trail that goes from Glacier National Park in Montana, through Port Townsend and on to La Push and Olympic National Park. It hooks into the Continental Trail, that amazingly-serious 3100-mile trail that goes from Canada to Mexico down the spine of the Rockies. I see hikers with full packs passing through town quite often in summer, and while most people in Port Townsend have other thoughts than a national scenic trail with my art along it, I have to say I’m proud of these little pieces of aluminum scattered along they way.

Larry-&-Me-Royal-Basin-Hike

Thanks for reading this week. Send this to someone who might appreciate what I’m painting and tell them to sign up. I’m trying to expand my list. An email will work.
Larry Eifert

Here’s the blog on the web.And 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 beautiful photographs

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

New Painting Post

Passing Moment – Soon Gone

Heather-Creek-Feeder-Stream

Our little trail went right by this seasonal creek carrying runoff from snow much farther up the mountain – Buckhorn Peak. I loved the way the trail, carrying us, mimicked the creek, carry the water. Both of us were traveling, both right here at the same moment in time and together by chance. One of us appreciated the light and lush effects it produced with light streaming through the forest and onto the water. In a moment, all three were gone.

 

Heather Creek is up the Dungeness River, Olympic National Forest and National Park, second steepest watershed in America. In its 32 miles, the river drops 7,300 feet. I can say I’ve been from bottom to top of this river – it’s one of my favorites. From old-growth hemlock forests lacking fire scars to a waterfall that looks like a feathery curtain, broad meadows, alpine tarns, towering peaks named Deception, Buckhorn and Constance – it’s all here. I’ve painted it often, and if I can walk, I’ll be back!

Heather-Creek-Feeder-Stream-framed

This ORIGINAL painting is acrylic on board, 6″ x 9″ and $145 framed. Outside edge of the frame is about 12″ x 15″.
This custom frame has a triple liner and glass. Shipping adds just a bit more depending on your zone. This is the original painting, NOT a print.
Email us for details.

Thanks for reading this week. Send this to someone who might appreciate what I’m painting and tell them to sign up. I’m trying to expand my list. An email will work.
Larry Eifert

Here’s the blog on the web.And 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 beautiful photographs

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

New Painting Post

Royal Basin – Upper Meadows

Royal-Basin-Meadows

Just one more of my recent summer alpine series – please? I’m happy to say almost all of these current paintings are now sold. In August, I had most of a day to roam the meadows of this area, and it seems to have had a profound effect on what I want to paint – at least for now. Royal Basin, Olympic National Park: there were evidently seven individual glaciers that came into one as it flowed down this single valley, and each headwall has developed its own personality. This one had a huge view of the adjoining valley and peak, Mt Clark – and the views were stunning, so I developed a painting around this feeling of meadow-walking. I just want to somehow walk here again – and if it’s with a painting, so be it.

Royal-Basin-Meadows-framed

DETAILS:

This ORIGINAL painting is acrylic on board, 6″ x 9″ and $145 framed.
The custom frame has a triple liner and glass (and actually, I think the frame is more pecan-colored in real life). Shipping adds just a bit more depending on your zone. This is the original painting, NOT a print.

AND: as I publish this, amazingly the painting on the last blog post is still available. I can put them both together and offer a discount – but all the other 10 recent small paintings are now sold. Email us for details.

Thanks for reading this week.
Larry Eifert

Here’s the blog on the web.  And 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 beautiful photographs

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

New Painting Post

Barnes Creek Trail – Shadows

Barnes-Creek-Trail---Shadows

Sorry, this one is sold.

Barnes Creek Trail – Shadows. This ORIGINAL painting is acrylic on board, 6″ x 9″ and $145 framed.
The custom frame has a triple liner and glass. Shipping adds just a bit more depending on your zone. This is the original painting, NOT a print. Also, I have several other frame styles if you so choose.
Email us for details.

Barnes-Creek-Trail-Shadows-framed

A little back story: A few weeks ago we hiked Barnes Creek Trail in Olympic National Park, the extension of the shorter Marymere Falls Trail. On the way back, we saw late afternoon sun streaming across the creek and lighting up this area – like a spotlight. I thought, “Oh, a painting.” About a zillion tourists take that shorter trail to the falls. “Make it?”, asked one more-than-hefty person in the parking lot when we came out. But forget that waterfall-stuff on the kid’s trail, if you go past the tourist trail sign to the falls, Barnes Creek Trail goes upslope for some miles, an almost forgotten bit of lovely. In a bit the trail passes over a ridge and then drops to a really wonderful bridge that I just have to show you. It’s built of two trees, downed just perfectly to span the 200′ across the water. Nice job – Park Service!

Barnes-Ck-bridge

Thanks for reading this week.
Larry Eifert

Here’s the blog on the web.  And 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 beautiful photographs

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

New Painting Post

The Way Trail

Obstruction_waytrail

Sorry, it’s sold.

Clicking either image should enlarge in your browser. 

It’s called “The Way Trail” because it’s not a normally-maintained path. The best trails are way trails, and it’s another from my alpine experiences this summer. That’s the Bailey Range in Olympic National Park, meadows around Obstruction Point and near the little lake we call “Lake Nancy” (since it’s not named on any map, we’re calling it this after you-know-who).  We were up there recently and watched the sky turn orange before sunset, which seemed to match the late-summer paintbrush still in bloom at our feet. It was a soft memory, the kind I love to paint.

Waytrail-framed

This ORIGINAL painting is varnished acrylic on linen canvas, 6″ x 9″ and $145 framed.
I have other frames if you’d like and shipping adds just a bit more depending on your zone. This is the original painting, NOT a print.

And, I still have last week’s painting available and will give a discount if you buy both. See last week’s here. All the other eight I recently posted are sold – sorry.

Email us for details.

Thanks for reading this week.
Larry Eifert

Here’s the blog on the web.  And 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 beautiful photographs

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

New Painting Post

Royal Basin Trail – Into the Light

Royal-Basin---Into-the-Light

We recently hiked this glorious trail, and I always love to relive good times by painting them. Miles of old-growth forest in a mature western hemlock forest, trails going off in various directions to alpine places of glorious solitude, the sounds of the Dungeness River always in ear-shot. It’s a special place we go to often. So here’s a little painting expressing that. If I die tomorrow and walk into the Light, this is how I hope it will be.

Royal-Basin-Into-Light_framed

This ORIGINAL painting is varnished acrylic on linen canvas, 6″ x 8″ and $145 custom framed with a triple mat and glass. The glass size is 11″ x 14″ and outside measurements are 14″ x 17″.
Shipping adds just a bit more depending on your zone. This is the original painting, NOT a print.
Email us for details.

Thanks for reading this week.
Larry Eifert

Here’s the blog on the web.  And 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 beautiful photographs

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