Tag Archives: Parks

New Painting Post

A Sea-run Humpy for Sitka

No post last week – just too busy. But this just came off the easel today and will be sent out tomorrow for approval, so let’s get your approval as well.

This is going to Sitka National Historical Park in Alaska. My task here was to paint the ocean form of the humpbacked or pink salmon in a realistic way so it looks like it’s the real deal. I also painted the eggs, alevin and fry in the same manner, but I’ll post those later. This one seemed to have gotten that pretty well. There was some debate about the shine. If it’s out of the water, it would shine, but in the water this fish wouldn’t shine anywhere. In fact, they look pretty dull and camouflaged, and needs to be or it would be a seal’s meal. After I scanned it and looked at the reference photos (about 25 of them), I thought that the fish might need to be more reddish since my scanner is always on the cool side. So Photoshop did that, and now I’m not sure.

So here’s that second version with the red.

Sea-run-pink-salmon

Art is always like that. There’s no THERE there. You never know when it’s finished, or if it’s ‘right’, since there is no ‘right’ – just someone else’s opinion. Years ago, in the Eifert Gallery in California, a woman came in and went right around the main exhibit hall.  I happened to be upstairs on the mezzanine and overheard her comment as she went around the room: “Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong” she declared in a voice that I thought was louder than necessary. It was a teachable moment for me, because I realized my confidence had grown and I was solidly in command of my feelings, and what did she know – nothing more than I did, and probably less.

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

Sitka National Historical Park Mural Sketch

 Here’s my sketch for the biggest of six paintings for Sitka National Historical Park. I’m now awaiting approval or change requests to begin painting – oh boy. I loaded a big 16″ version of this on the web, so just click the drawing to see it.

There are some areas that still need figuring out. The right side needs defining better, harlequin ducks are too big, the upper left (spruce forest). The overall concept is probably Okay, but I won’t know until the National Park Service releases comments (which they’re very good at).

And here’s one of my reference photos of the location to show how I arrived at the sketch. This is the story I’m trying to tell: pink or humpy salmon come into the Indian River to spawn and then die. Bears, eagles, ravens, martens and more come in to get the fish; some are dragged or flown off into the forest to be eaten – and the remains leach into the soil feeding the trees. It’s some of the only nitrogen these trees get, and a healthy forest is needed to feed and shelter the new eggs after they hatch and young (alevin) as they grow. It’s a story only recently discovered. I had a tough time with the rocks on the left, which were obviously placed there to keep the bank from eroding, but they’re not natural, and in fact are not healthy for young fish. In the end, I added a few.

And here’s the ‘Subject Sitka Spruce’ within 100 feet of the other photo, with devils club on the left, false Soloman-seal on the ground and Nancy (the real subject of interest to me) to add a size-scale. These were taken on our field trip there last month.

This painting will eventually become an interpretive exhibit placed right here, and an entire generation of people to see and learn about the Indian River’s salmon. It will outlast me, I’m sure.

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

Dipper Bobbing – Dungeness River

American Dippers cannot seem to just stand there, but have to constantly bob up and down. This one was at the bottom of the bob.

I just have this thing for American Dippers and clear, rushing little waterfalls. So here’s another painting of my favorite little bird, mainly because we’ve seen many of them on our recent summer hikes. Dippers were also John Muir’s favorite bird. He said it was because they only live along the cleanest mountain streams and represented what’s best about American wilderness. They never stray from rushing water. Given a river bend, dippers will fly the long route around instead of short-cutting across the neck. They build nests of moss and twigs behind waterfalls, so the chicks are wet from birth. Now here’s the best part: dippers feed by jumping into the water, sometimes barely above freezing, and with wings open for balance, they just walk around underwater kicking over stones looking for aquatic insects to eat. It’s as if they’re oblivious to the fact it’s water at all. They can jump into a huge current, and then appear someplace completely different, at home just ‘ambling around’ underwater. Pop, they’ll just jump out of a pool and sit for a moment on a log, just like this painting shows, seemingly without a drop of water on them. In fact, come to think of it, I’ve never seen a dipper actually shake off water.

 Here’s where I saw this little guy, the Dungeness River up in the Buckhorn Wilderness, featured today on the Wild Olympics website and just 20 miles from home. It’s the second steepest river in America, falling 7700 feet in just 28 miles.

 

This ORIGINAL painting is varnished acrylic on linen canvas, 11″ x 14″ and $145 unframed.
This custom frame (sorry, color seems a bit off in the photo) with a linen liner makes it a total of $180 and shipping adds just a bit more depending on your zone or if you take the frame. This is the original painting, NOT a print. I have other frames of various styles too.
Email us for details.

Sorry, but it’s sold.

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

Old-growth Forest Poster Is Now Available

We’ve now printed my Mount Rainier National Park mural as a 18″x 24″ poster. I spent some time on a different type of design for this, with a really great interpretive key on the back. We’ve already had orders from several big parks, so I’m feeling this is going to work.

Awhile ago, I got to thinking about how posters are used. Hang them up, you can’t see the back, all that backside space lost to the viewers. So, I reworked this to make it so anyone can slam it on a copy machine and get four full sheets of the back that create a nice teaching guide and interpretive key. I’m hoping classes use this, but also people who just want to use the painting as a field guide reference.

The poster back is sectioned off so teachers can photocopy each of four panels and create a lesson plan.

And here’s the original painting installed in Mount Rainier National Park. It’s in the main room filled with oiled wood trim and cedar walls, and seems to fit almost like it’s in an art gallery, but guess what, it’s CLOSED because of the SEQUESTER. It’s the nicest visitor center (I think) at that world-class park, and so why would this great country just shut this off, board it up and not allow people to use it at the very busiest season? Let’s see, by doing this, it might staff cuts (people out of work and on unemployment), the non-profit there can’t sell books (meaning private publishers loose money and therefore pay fewer taxes) and artists (us) loose income to pay our printer and and therefore pay fewer taxes.

But while you may not be able to buy this poster at the Ohanapecosh Visitor Center, you CAN get them from us. Here’s a direct link to our shopping cart. 18″ x 24″ poster for $8.95 each. Help us pay the bill that Mount Rainier’s Ohanapecosh would have helped with!

Thanks for reading this week.
Larry Eifert

Here’s the blog.  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 photographs

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

New Painting Post

Sitka National Historical Park gets some Eifert paintings

There are LOTS of historic totem poles at the Sitka National Historical Park and Southeast Alaska Indian Cultural Center in Sitka, Alaska, and soon there will also be some Eiferts. This past week we had the distinct privilege to spend it in one of the most interesting, beautiful and historically-significant towns in America, and one of the most remote as well. No roads go to Sitka, and in fact it’s the only town that faces the Gulf of Alaska head-on. There are about 9,000 people there who own 7500 cars – but there’s only 21.5 miles of roads to drive them on – and I’d guess there are more fishing boats than people. The National Park Service has the oldest national park unit in Alaska, and there’s a beautiful visitor center and historic park along the Indian River, as well as the Russian Bishop’s House, a meticulously restored and remarkable two-story massive structure built in 1842 that is mind-boggling in it’s history, furnishings and especially the building itself. In an effort to keep this short, let’s just say we had a very good time – and boy, are these people friendly.

My task is now to create some paintings of the salmon runs in the Indian River. So after five other concept sketches, this was my best try, and I think it will work. I won’t explain it now, but you’ll soon see the painting, a forest scene with brown bears, ravens, eagles and lots of salmon returning to spawn.

And here’s the location along the river. An amazingly beautiful place, and you’d never know it but it’s right smack in the middle of town. As we walked in these woods, we constantly overheard bald eagles and ravens ‘talking’ among themselves high in the canopy. While we were there one day, a string trio played in a meadow within 200 feet of this photo location and I’ve never heard a cello, viola and violin played along with eagles and ravens chinning in from the balcony – and as loud as the wooden instruments. Remarkable.

And here’s the initial species list I created on location. It was written in the order of discussion and while we didn’t see all these critters here, we saw almost all of them somewhere on our stay – even the grizzlies.

 

 

Stay tuned. It’ll be a fun painting – and there are five other smaller paintings coming as well. I’m excited.

 

 

 

Finally: I don’t usually do this, but I’d like to recommend the channel-side small inn and restaurant we stayed at in Sitka. It’s the Fly-In-Fish-Inn and it couldn’t have been a better experience. Ken and Carla made us feel like we were family.

 

 

Thanks for reading this week.
Larry Eifert

Click here to go to the online blog this was to.

Or click here to follow me on Facebook. I post lots of other stuff there, like trip photos of this expedition.

Click here to go to our main website – packed with jigsaw puzzles, prints, interpretive portfolios and lots of other stuff.

Click here to check out what Nancy’s currently working on with her photography.

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

New Painting Post

Dipper Fishing – A new acrylic painting on canvas

SOLD

We’re soon off for a field trip to Sitka, Alaska for field research, but I wanted to post one last painting before we left. It’s one of those I delight in painting – a little corner of nature involving the reflective quality of water in motion.

The motivation for this painting came at a trail head in Olympic National Park when Nancy spied a sign telling of an American Dipper research project going on there, and that we were to watch out for dippers with leg bands – and armed with which color banding, if it’s on the left or right foot (THEIR left and right, not OURS – it said that), we were to call someone and tell when what we saw. Have you EVER tried to watch a dipper. They sit still for about a microsecond, bouncing up and down, and never very close to you. So I did a dipper painting without a leg band!

This ORIGINAL painting is varnished acrylic on linen canvas, 11″ x 14″ and $145 unframed.

The color’s a bit off, but this shows the custom frame with a linen liner that would make it a total of $170 and shipping adds just a bit more depending on your zone or if you take the frame. This is the original painting, NOT a print.
Email us for details.

Thanks for reading this week.
Larry Eifert

Click here to go to the online blog this was to.

Or click here to follow me on Facebook. I post lots of other stuff there.

Click here to go to our main website – packed with jigsaw puzzles, prints, interpretive portfolios and lots of other stuff.

Click here to check out what Nancy’s currently working on with her photography.

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

New Painting Post

The Artist’s View – Eifert’s 48North Page for June, 2013

Recently we were in the Seattle Aquarium and while Nancy was photographing the yearling sea otter, I spent some time in the tidal tank area with my sketchbook. This is one of my favorite Seattle-places, almost as good as the Woodland Park Zoo. I’ve spent hours in here drawing and just watching life go on in the big salt water exhibits. So, from that came this little sketch showing the community of critters that live there on one of the pilings. This is all raw ocean water that gets piped into the aquarium, and it’s all unfiltered so much of the marine life comes in naturally. As I was drawing this, I realized everything in front of me was either trying to eat everyone else, or trying to just hide so as to not be eaten. What a scary place to live – so I wrote about it for my monthly story in 48-North magazine.

And here’s my original sketch before I added watercolor to it as an underlay. Lets see: plumose anemones, kelp crabs, pile perch, acorn barnacles, ochre star, little brown barnacles and a hermit crab or two. Got it!

And just in case you missed it last week, here’s our newest puzzle, “A Walk on the Wild Side” for Fort Townsend State Park, the old-growth forest park near us here on the Olympic Peninsula. Check it out here on the website. And thanks, everyone, for the initial interest in this new interpretive puzzle. Very gratifying.

Thanks for reading this week.
Larry Eifert

Click here to go to the online blog this was to. And you can follow me on Facebook where I just posted a new hiking album.

Click here to go to our main website – packed with jigsaw puzzles, prints, interpretive portfolios and lots of other stuff.

Click here to check out what Nancy’s currently working on with her photography.

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

New Painting Post

A NEW Jigsaw Puzzle for Summer 2013

 

 

Oh Boy! Announcing a new Eifert mural puzzle – and it’s now available on our website. If you live on the Olympic Peninsula, email us and we can arrange pickup or delivery so you can avoid shipping – and I’ll even sign the box if you want. You might remember my posts a few months ago about completing this mural for our local old-growth forest park, Fort Townsend State Park and funded by the Friends Group and the Washington Native Plant Society. Now this painting is available for some serious close study as a new 500-piece, 18″ x 24″ jigsaw puzzle. There’s a LOT going on in this image and it should be fun – and the box back makes for a very good interpretive study – even a field guide.

 

 

And here’s the box back showing the “good stuff” as one of my park-ranger-friends calls it. You really can use it as a field guide – and I admit I already have when I forgot one of these rare plants I saw on the trail the other day.

The original mural is installed in the park, and a large exhibit is at the entrance station too. I’m proud of this one, because it’s in my backyard. Rarely do I ever get to see my paintings after they leave the studio, but this is my ‘morning walking place’, and it’s fun to see it there.

Thanks for reading this week. I counted, and I believe this is my 72nd painting made into an interpretive jigsaw puzzle – wow.

Larry Eifert

Click here to go to the online blog this was to. And you can follow me on Facebook too. Lots of other stuff there, like trail albums and trip logs.

Click here to go to our main website – packed with jigsaw puzzles, prints, interpretive portfolios and lots of other stuff.

Click here to check out what Nancy’s currently working on with her photography.

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

New Painting Post

A Light in the Forest

“Light in the Forest” is an original acrylic painting on canvas, 24″ x 48″. This started with the reference sketch that I made at Sol Duc Valley in Olympic National Park. A droopy trillium flower, a few non-flowering False Lily-of-the-Valley plants, some sword ferns – but I liked the idea of a big shaft of bright sun illuminating a lush springtime old-growth forest. I think I need to work on this just a bit more, but I’m close to getting there. It may be a tad over the top with details, but I couldn’t help but to add a calypso orchid, just because it’s my favorite forest flower – and a Pacific wren, one of my favorite forest birds. These little guys are only about 3 inches long, yet sing an astoundingly-loud sizzling song that seems to go on forever. The poor little bird had its name changed a few years ago when some new genetic testing reveled the birds here on the West Coast are different than the eastern birds. No respect!

This is the original painting, NOT a print. If you’re interested in purchasing this, email me.

We’re offering “Light in the Forest” for $1700 with our custom-built hemlock frame. Shipping will add a bit more, but since it’s on canvas, it’s light. Other frames are also available.

Email us for details.

Thanks for reading this week.
Larry Eifert

Click here to go to the online blog this was to. Or follow me on Facebook here.

Click here to go to our main website – packed with jigsaw puzzles, prints, interpretive portfolios and lots of other stuff.

Click here to check out what Nancy’s currently working on with her photography.

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

New Painting Post

Rialto Beach from Hole in the Wall

This may not quite be finished, but I thought I’d post it anyway. It always helps for me to see it on a small screen – helps me sort of what’s wrong. I’ve had two weeks of replacing windows, doors and decking (LOTS of decking) here at the Lodge, so there hasn’t been much time for the paint brush.

The sea stacks at Hole in the Wall have been photographed and painted by just about everybody, probably including George Bush (if you haven’t seen his paintings on the web, you’re missing seeing his true calling. I especially like the self-portrait in the shower?!!?). But, I’VE never painted them, so here goes. While this amazing stretch of roadless beach can be a very hairy place when a big sea is running and the tide is high, a few times when we’ve been out there it’s been just like this – so calm you could launch a rowboat. Truly sublime. And where’s Hole in the Wall? It’s actually beneath the feet of the viewer. There’s a high-tide trail that snakes over the cliff, and from its top this spectacular view presents itself.

And here’s the scene from the south. You can see Hole in the Wall to the right that some say also looks like an elephant’s head, the trunk is created by the hole. It’s a local favorite place for us, and most everyone else on the Olympic Peninsula that likes wild beaches.

This ORIGINAL painting is varnished acrylic on linen canvas, 20″ x 40″ and is offered for sale. It’s destined for a gallery, but if you’re interested, please email us for details.

AND, a few of you caught my mistake (yes, I admit it) a few weeks ago when I was blogging about my James Pond painting. I mistakenly said James Pond was on the Hoh River, but it’s really on the Quillayute River, just a couple of miles from this new painting. I knew that, but somehow the fingers typed Hoh. Happily, the buyers of the painting didn’t notice, but a few of you sure did, and I’m just happy someone reads this stuff. And, even better, no vampires from the Twilight Gang showed up to argue the issue.

Thanks for reading this week.
Larry Eifert

Click here to go to the online blog this was to.

Click here to go to our main website – packed with jigsaw puzzles, prints, interpretive portfolios and lots of other stuff.

Click here to check out what Nancy’s currently working on with her photography.

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