Tag Archives: Solstice

Paintings From Paradise

 

For the last few weeks, Nancy and I have been in San Jose and Cabo San Lucas, then a some nice days in San Diego visiting family on our way home. Of course I couldn’t let a good day at the beach go by, so I painted a few watercolors of those times with my little Prang travel kit. Above, there’s Nancy coming along the beach with Cabo’s  inner harbor right behind her. The last time we saw this place was in 2005 when we sailed Ave Maria, our 50-ketch (just the two of us – 38,000 lbs of boat – two tired sailors) into the harbor midway through a very good adventure (here’s the link to THAT story).

And here’s Nancy again going to where she is most comfortable, swimming in a tropical ocean. These are both “5 x 7” on Arches paper.  At one point on this one, I had an 8-yr old Mexican kid come by and watch me. Not a peep, not a change of expression, just cautious amazement – and then he went on  his way without a word. I like Mexico a lot!

 

And below is another one, more of a trip log, of that girl-I-share-life with, book in hand, shoes off in the sand and using a boulder for part of her towel.  This one is 7″x 7″. These paintings are such great ways to remember a trip. By seeing these paintings later, I’ll vividly remember each rock, the color of that golden sand, the frigate birds whirling overhead and maybe also recall the green Ridley sea turtles that we saw hatching out on the same beach just a few hundred yards to the left.

 

And here’s the amazing part. Good friends, and I mean GOOD friends invited us to share this cliff-top house right on the hill above Cabo overlooking the invisible line that marks the Pacific Ocean and Sea of Cortez. It was quite a place. Our bedroom was the room behind the chairs – really! But what the photo doesn’t show is that the edge of that pool drops straight down probably 3-400 feet to the ocean. REALLY! It was a thrill to swim up to that edge and look over, to look DOWN at the backs of the frigate birds and pelicans as they went by. I don’t ever remember sleeping in a room so far out on a cliff that had both the morning sun rising and evening sunset streaming into opposite windows. Besides this, the ceilings of most rooms had custom handmade arched parabolic brick ceilings that amplified the sound like we were all ‘miced up’, an obvious needed addition because the sound of the crashing waves below was sometimes deafening. There were times we thought we felt the place shake.

 

Thanks for reading this week. I’ll be back on my normal blogging schedule from now on. Thanks for the kindness from everyone this Solstice Season.
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.

A Winter Solstice Greeting for 2012

Just a solstice card from those two traveling artists in Port Townsend, Washington. This wishes everyone a wonderful winter solstice – and toss in a Christmas toast too. We both want to thank everyone who helped support our creative lifestyle this year and allowed us to learn about some new and amazing places. 

For us near Seattle, Winter Solstice is Wednesday, December 21, 2011 at 9:30 PM, the exact moment the earth’s northward tilting stands still – just for a moment. Then we begin a reverse back towards sunnier times for the Northern Hemisphere. I like to call it our First Moment of Spring!

So let’s celebrate that. Get outside for a bit, walk into your local park, backyard, forest or beside a beach, lake or stream. Take a great breath of air into your lungs and give some thanks that you can still do this – and still appreciate it. Life is short – but I always think it should be wide – as wide as possible!

We’ve had lots of requests for photos of US, not just paintings or photographs – so this one was taken in San Diego three weeks ago by Steven Cherry. The effects of a few glasses of wine at Casa de Pico seem somewhat apparent, don’t they?

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.

Happy Solstice from Larry, Nancy – and Virginia

Here’s a little solstice story to read while you’re awaiting the big eclipse tonight. If you miss it or it’s cloudy, there’s another one in 2094.

Each Christmas between about 1940 until her death in 1966, my mom, Virginia, would hand-paint Christmas cards. A lucky hundred people would received these little watercolor and ink gems with her poetry inside. Each was slightly different, each a gift from someone who really couldn’t spare a moment of her short life. Books and articles waited, speaking engagements waited, her family waited – buying MY Christmas goodies waited – while she lined the cards up in rows on her painting table. I did the same thing too, until a few decades ago I realized I just couldn’t paint 100 of the same anything.

I occasionally hear from someone who still has a few of these – the most ancient would now be 70 years old. Sometimes they’re framed and hanging like a real painting – which, of course, they are. I think she would be amazed at that, because, for Virginia, they were just little Christmas expressions of her love for nature and her friends. For me, they’ve always been an example of how to be an artist. Here’s a link to a few more of her cards.

And here’s one of the verses, our Winter Solstice message for you.

How shall I wish you strength?
A trees says “strength” so silently.
How shall I wish you joy?
A bird sings joy and needs no words.
How shall I wish you peace,
When snow breathes peace so perfectly?
Yet these are the gifts I wish to you
At Christmas time.
And in the year to come.

Thanks for reading this week.

Larry and Nancy Cherry 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.