Tag Archives: Sailing

New Painting Post, Sailing, Washington State Parks, Waysides, Wildlife

Sucia Island Marine Food Webs

There are 16 paintings here, all in layers!

This is my second effort for two wayside panels at Sucia Island in the San Juan Islands. See the other one here. This one is much more complex, many pieces of art all layered together to tell the story of forage fish, salmon and orca whales.

Here is the initial concept.

And here is the seventh version.

And below are the individual little paintings used to make this final composite.

Many Friends groups often use my final art for other uses. We put the art on posters, jigsaw puzzles, framed art they can use for fund-raising. Sorry to say, but obviously that can’t be the case with this one – but I thought the orca and salmon paintings were worthy of being stand-alone art.

I know lots of Northwest boaters read this blog since I also write a monthly page for 48 North, the Puget Sound boating magazine. Next time you’re anchored off Sucia Island, search out these two installations. They’ll be living their lives sitting beside Mud Bay. I will, too.

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

Larry Eifert

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New Painting Post

Thriller – A Sculpture Project on the Side

 

What’s THIS in our meadow? Is it a classic boat? A sculpture? For me it’s both, plus a bunch of fun? It’s a Lightning class 19-foot sloop, #7108 that was built at the Livingston Boat Shop in Michigan in 1959. Old-growth cedar at it’s finest!

In 2010 after we sold Sea Witch, our 1940 sloop, it took me exactly 10 months to find this boat. Rebuilt by a very fine gentleman in the Bay Area, it was perfect for crashing around our local bay, and if you live in Port Townsend, you have to have a classic wood boat to crash around the bay.

I sailed it all last summer, but promised myself I wouldn’t make any changes to it until this past winter when I got a good feeling for the boat and what I wanted it to look like. So, with new paint colors and bright varnish almost everywhere, we’re now closing in on a spring launch. I still have to refit the sails, do some sewing and tighten things up, but we’re closing in.

To me, this is high art, sculpture that’s both form and function working together, and just pure beautiful. Under one of the original fittings, I found what appears to be the original deck color, a 1959-era pale-green that coincidentally I had already chosen as a color that would match the cedar planking. How’s that for intuitive thinking?

The boat carries a spinnaker, main and jib, and let me tell you all that when this boat gets off the wind on to a reach in some wind, it’s a real rush when I feel it rise up on a plane and take off. The first time it happened, I said “wow, what a Thriller of a ride” and so that apprears to be the boat’s new name. Stay tuned to more posts as I get this thing together more. Just consider it an on-going art project – which it is!

Quite a sled, don’t you think? Want to go for a sail?

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.