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.
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This model is one of my favorites from it's a small world.
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The next one is one of my wife's favorites, a cute girl with a kitty.
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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.
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Here is the letter that accompanied Watermelon Boy to the Davis' house.
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If you get a chance to visit the exhibit, I highly recommend it and also the Marc Davis exhibit currently running.