Tuesday, February 13, 2007

Peter Ellenshaw: 1913-2007

Jeff Kurtti relayed the sad news to me of the passing yesterday of Disney Legend Peter Ellenshaw. He was best known for his incredible matte paintings in films such as 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Treasure Island, The Story of Robin Hood, and most famously Mary Poppins for which he won an Academy Award.

His work that made the greatest impression on me personally was the art direction for 1979's The Black Hole. A medicore story totally overshadowed by Ellenshaw's visually stunning and hauntingly beautiful designs.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

The world has lost a great artist. As so often happens in these cases, his truth worth won't be known until long after his death. I just watched Mary Poppins again today and was commenting on how good his paintings were. A few minutes later I heard of his passing. Very sad.

Tinker Bell said...

He was one of my all time favorite artists. I looked up to his work so much. He will be greatly missed.