Mary Blair\nBorn October 21, 1911 – July 26, 1978\nEducation Chouinard Art Institute graduated 1933\n\nBlair\'s first professional job in the animation industry was as an animator with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. She would soon leave and join Lee Blair at the Ub Iwerks studio before moving to Disney. In the 1930s she was also a part of the innovative California Water-Color Society.\n\nBlair joined The Walt Disney Company—initially with some reluctance— in 1940, and worked briefly on art for Dumbo, an early version of Lady and the Tramp, and a second version of Fantasia titled \"Baby Ballet\" which was not released until the late 1990s.\n\nAfter leaving the studio for a short time in 1941, Blair travelled to various South American countries with Walt Disney, Lillian Disney and other artists on a research tour. as part of the Good Neighbor policy of the President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Her watercolors impressed Disney, who appointed her as an art supervisor for the animated feature films Saludos Amigos and The Three Caballeros.\n\nhe early 1950s were a busy time for the Disney studio, with an animated feature released nearly every year. Mary Blair was credited with color styling on Cinderella (1950), Alice in Wonderland (1951) and Peter Pan (1953), and the artistic influence of her concept art is strongly felt in those films, as well as in several animated shorts, including Susie the Little Blue Coupe and The Little House, she designed during that period.

\nAfter the completion of Peter Pan, Blair resigned from Disney and worked as a freelance graphic designer and illustrator, creating advertising campaigns for companies such as Nabisco, Pepsident, Maxwell House, Beatrice Foods and others. She also illustrated several Little Golden Books for publisher Simon & Schuster, some of which remain in print today, and she also designed Christmas and Easter sets for Radio City Music Hall. \n\nAt the request of Walt Disney, who regarded highly her innate sense of color styling, Blair began work on Disney\'s new attraction, \"It\'s a Small World\". Originally a Pepsi-Cola-sponsored pavilion benefiting UNICEF at the 1964 New York World\'s Fair, the attraction moved to Disneyland after the Fair closed and was later replicated at the Magic Kingdom in Walt Disney World Resort.\n\nMemberships:\nCalifornia School of Watercolor\n\nHonors:\n1991 Mary was honored as a Disney Legend\n1996 received the Winsor McCay Award from ASIFA-Hollywood\n2014 inducted into the Society of Illustrators Hall of Fame\n\nonline gallery: http://magicofmaryblair.com/mary-gallery.htm

Mary Blair History of American Illustration