Mary Blair

Mary Blair

Dr. Eric Smith

Hensel Mullins

            Mary Blair was an American artist who was extremely important in producing art and animation for The Walt Disney Company. Mary Blair had drawn many concept arts for extremely well known films such as Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan, Song of the South and Cinderella. Blair is credited with the color scheme for "it's a small world". All in all her unique, amazing sense of color can be found in almost all of her paintings.

            Mary Blair worked as a sketch artist on multiple projects already in process. Although she was able to experiment artistically, Mary Blair quickly became bored and frustrated with the work.  There were many reasons for her frustration.  One reason stemmed from the fact that she continuously joined projects already past the planning stages and into concept production.  Unlike her free spirited watercolors, she was forced to paint a preconceived creative notion opposed to being an actual part of the initial designs and ideas.  Furthermore, she was not her own boss and worked under multiple veteran Disney artists. Due to this, her work did not look like that of one artist with a firm creative voice, but that of various artists.

Disenchanted, Mary Blair resigned to return home and work on her water colors while her husband continued employment with the company.  However, despite her short time at the studios, her beautifully moody sketches resonated with Walt Disney and he soon handpicked Mary Blair to be one of the artists to accompany him on his Goodwill South American tour.  Mary Blair jumped at the opportunity for travel and just three months after her resignation was rehired by the Walt Disney Company.

The Goodwill South American tour was quite fortuitous for Mary Blair and played a pivotal point in her future as an artist. It was on this trip that Mary Blair’s artwork flourished with the vibrant colors of her tropical surroundings and unexpected, thought provoking color combinations. Mary Blair utilized her watercolors but also reached for charcoals, gouache, and black backgrounds which further enriched her works with layers of bright colors.  For many Disney fans familiar with Mary’s work, it can be said that during this fruitful period, her true artistic voice began to resonate.

Finally, Blair's witty, childlike and utterly charming style is clearly reflected in the theatrical sceneries. The buildings seem to be collages, made of colored paper that comes in a standard set of colors and shapes. And for the first time, Mary Blair found her place within the Walt Disney organization. Not only did she get to work on a film from the very beginning it was also her own artistic boss. The very things she longed for during her first employ.

Works Cited

Boy, Fan. The Life behind the Color: A Brief Biography of Mary Blair. 19 Mar. 2014, www.laughingplace.com/w/articles/2014/03/19/the-life-behind-the-color-a-brief-biography-of-mary-blair/

Albers, Josef. Designing "it's a small world". 31 Oct. 2012, www.designingdisney.com/content/designing-its-small-world-mary-blair

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Blair