Peter Ellenshaw

Peter Ellenshaw, whose artistic career spans more than six decades, is a renowned landscape artist, motion picture art director, Academy Award, winning special effects artist and official Disney Legend.
Ellenshaw was born in Great Britian in 1913. In 1947, his work caught the attention of an art director for the Walt Disney Studios. Disney was in the pre-planning stages of his very first live-action film, Treasure Island, which would be produced in Great Britian and the art director inquired if Ellenshaw would be interested in the project. Thus began a professional collaboration and friendship with Walt Disney that would span over 30 years and 34 films.

Ellenshaw regarded Walt Disney as a source of inspiration, a wonderful executive, and over the years, a good friend. "Walt had the ability to communicate with artists." Recalls Ellenshaw. "He'd talk to you on your level - artist to artist. He used to say, 'I can't draw, Peter.' But he had the soul of an artist, and he had a wonderful way on transferring his enthusiasm to you."

In 1953 the Ellenshaws moved from Great Britian to the United States where Peter began working full-time for the Walt Disney Studios. Ellenshaw maintained his identity as a traditional landscape artist during his Disney years and always found time on evenings and weekends to work on his own canvases.
One of Ellenshaw's first Disney projects upon his arrival at the Studio was to create a conceptual rendering of something called "Disneyland." Ellenshaw went to work painting an aerial view of the proposed part on a 4'x8' piece of fiberboard. The painting was then used by Walt Disney to help introduce television audiences to his new project, while simultaneously using the painting to attract backers on this exciting new concept in outdoor entertainment.

In 1964 Ellenshaw won the Best Special Visual Effects Academy Award, for his astounding matte work in Walt Disney's beloved line-action musical-fantasy Mary Poppins. During his amazing film career, Ellenshaw has been nominated for four Academy Awards. In 1993, Ellenshaw was officially designated a "Disney Legend" by The Walt Dinsey Company during a ceremony at The Walt Disney Studios officiated by Michael D. Eisner and Roy E. Disney.

Ellenshaw's art can be found in public and private collections around the world. He has had many one-man exhibitions, and his Disney art was included in a retrospective show at New York's Museum of Modern Art. An artist who continually strives to paint better, Ellenshaw has recently turned his artistic attentions to painting the world's most famous golf courses. He says of his career: "The wonderful thing in painting is that one can never reach the peak of one's endeavor."

All Dimensions of Available Work Are UNFRAMED DIMENSIONS


Please Contact us for Original Paintings that Are Available by This Artist.


Available Works


Aurora's Rescue


Glass Castle


Mickey's Dream


Mystical Kingdom of the Beast


Off to Home We Go


Pooh Fishing with Friends


Pooh's Soccer


Pooh and the Magic Trees


Practically Perfect


Rescuing Piglet


Smoke Staircase


Sweeps Dance on the Roof


20,000 Leagues Under the Sea


We Can Fly


Winter Walk

Top

Closed Bid Online Art Auction

Featured Artists | Visit the Gallery | Events Calendar | Events Revisited | Guestbook/Contact Us | Glossary of Art Reproduction Terms

Hidden Dreams Fine Art Gallery, Laguna Beach

Hidden Dreams Fine Art Home

Copyright © 2004 Hidden Dreams Fine Art

Comments or Questions:
info@hiddendreamsfineart.com