A Visit With Mary Blair

Last weekend I took a quick trip to San Francisco to see the Mary Blair exhibit at the Walt Disney Family Museum. Mary is one of my favorite illustrators and designers. Mary of course was a story artist and colorist for many of the late 1940s to 1950s films and then the designer for it's a small world as well as the tile murals in Tomorrowland and at the Contemporary Hotel in Florida. However, I appreciate her other art work especially her advertising, Little Golden Book and personal art. The first image is of Mary as painted by her husband Lee Blair.

This model is one of my favorites from it's a small world.

The next one is one of my wife's favorites, a cute girl with a kitty.

The next two paintings have a lovely story. Alice Davis purchased the previous painting and Lemonade Girl together from a charity auction. Later, Mary sent Alice Watermelon Boy as he missed Lemonade Girl and they needed to be together. To this day, both of these paintings hang in Alice's house.

Here is the letter that accompanied Watermelon Boy to the Davis' house.

If you get a chance to visit the exhibit, I highly recommend it and also the Marc Davis exhibit currently running.