![\"\"](\"http:\/\/larryeifert.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/Polks-sketch-right1.jpg\" "\\"Polks-sketch-right\\"")
<\/a><\/p>\nAnd we’re off again! This time it’s a complex habitat\u00a0wall mural for the Polks Nature Discovery Center in\u00a0central Florida – and this is going to be FUN. <\/strong>The top drawing is the right side of the 24′ mural, and I wanted to show this first because it’s my favorite part. The scene transcends from the swampy seasonal flatlands pond on the right (above) into the center pine flatwoods with saw palmento and finally, on the left into a\u00a0sandhill\u00a0 pines area. There’s a lot going on here, with very juicy stuff to paint like wood storks,\u00a0alligators and spoonbills. There’s even an orange-red corn snake wrapped around the cypress.<\/p>\n Make sure you click on this bottom image so you can see the entire thing.\u00a0<\/strong> As\u00a0 you can see, I still\u00a0 have some details to work out in the sandy areas in the lower left, but we’ll get there. I began painting this a few days ago at my “downtown” studio in\u00a0Union Bank where I\u00a0have enough space. My little studio here won’t cut it. This will be quick; there are a bunch of other big projects waiting in line – and besides, this is the fun stuff of my life!<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n The colors, atmospheric qualities, horizon line – this is all a very different\u00a0place from where I live. The Northwest\u00a0 is a very deep place for colors, almost like it swallows color into a dark hole. The darks are verging on black but the light values are brilliant colors. In fact, I’ve often thought that the Olympics have the darkest forests I’ve ever painted and this creates huge value contrasts with other colors. This Florida painting is just the opposite. There, the atmosphere is so saturated with moisture is softens everything. The sky is pale, the edges of distant forests are almost blurred as they’re filtered through all that wet air. This is probably the most important thing I have to figure out in painting big landscapes: what makes a place look and feel the way it does.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n I’ll be posting progress reports as I go along with this one.\u00a0 Get the massage table ready – turn up the hot-tub. I’m ready! This gator’s smiling about it too.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Thanks for reading this week. Click <\/a>here to go to the online blog this was to.<\/p>\n Click <\/a>here to go to our main website – packed with jigsaw puzzles, prints, interpretive portfolios and lots of other stuff.<\/p>\n Click<\/a> here to check out what Nancy’s currently working on with her photography.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" And we’re off again! This time it’s a complex habitat\u00a0wall mural for the Polks Nature Discovery Center in\u00a0central Florida – and this is going to be FUN. The top drawing is the right side of the 24′ mural, and I wanted to show this first because it’s my favorite part. The scene transcends from … Continue reading Florida Gets an Eifert Mural<\/span> <\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n
\nLarry Eifert<\/p>\n