April 26: The Brilliance of Eyvind Earle

On this day in 1916, master painter, illustrator, and writer Eyvind Earle was born in New York City. Two years later his family moved to Hollywood, California, and at the young age of 10 Earle began to paint.

By the time he began working at Walt Disney Studios in 1951, his paintings had already been exhibited at such prestigious venues as the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. His first assignments at Disney was as a background painter for the short For Whom The Bulls Toil, the feature Melody, and the Academy Award winning short Toot, Whistle, Plunk and Boom.
Earle graduated to production designer & color stylist, and continued as a background painter for such classic animated features as Sleeping Beauty, Peter Pan, and Lady and the Tramp. Earle also painted the illustrations for "Walt Disney's Peter Pan and Wendy" Little Golden Book,
and designed five murals for the Disneyland theme park.

In the 1960s, Earle left Disney and started his own motion picture animation company where he created animated TV commercials for such clients as Chevrolet Motors, Chrysler Corporation and Kellogg Cereal Company.

In the late 1960s, Earle returned to painting full-time and for the next 35 years his work was featured in traveling exhibitions as well as one-man shows all over the U.S.
In 1998, he was honored at the 26th Annie Awards with the Winsor McCay Award for lifetime achievement in the art of animation. He passed away just two years later.

Learn more about this remarkable talent HERE.

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