Josh painting at Garrapata State Beach
south of Carmel |
More about Joshua Meador ... During his time away from the Disney Studios, Josh would pack up the family station wagon, and together with his wife Libby and son Philip, pulled a teardrop trailer throughout California, painting as they went.
Joshua's favorite painting tool was the palette knife. His son Philip smiled as he recalled that his father "kept some brushes around just to sign his work." Toward the end of his career, Josh remained under contract with Disney while he maintained studios and galleries in Carmel Highlands and later in Caspar just north of Mendocino.
Joshua can be seen explaining his painting technique on film. Josh participated in two short features created for Walt Disney's television show in 1954 and 1958. The first one entitled Tricks of our Trade features Josh animating lava bubbles for Fantasia. The second is entitled Four Artists Paint One Tree. Walt Disney introduces and narrates as four of the Disney Studio artists Eyvind Earle, Marc Davis, Walt Paragoy and Joshua Meador paint a California live oak tree using four different artistic styles. See the links above to view both of these films.
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Josh beginning his painting in the
film Four Artists Paint One Tree |
Joshua was a native of Columbus, Mississippi. He was honored recently in Columbus as one of the town's favorite sons, along with fellow Columbus native, famed playwright Tennessee Williams.
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The artists and their paintings for "Four Artists Paint One Tree,"
from left, Joshua Meador, Marc Davis, Eyvind Earle, and Walt Paragoy |
Josh is but one of the many skilled and talented painters attracted to California by the film industry. Fortunately for California, theses artists have left an artistic legacy well beyond their work in film.Beginning in 1936, he participated in a long list of Disney productions. He was most proud of the water effects in Cinderella, Bambi, and the fire and bubbling mud scenes in the "Rite of Spring" in Fantasia.
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Josh at Disney observing mud bubbles
as he creates animated lava effects for Fantasia |
At Disney, he also was part of a team winning a special effects Oscar for Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea. Josh's wife Libby Meador reports that Josh loved working for Disney.
Once, the Disney Studios loaned Josh and his talents to MGM Studios to do special
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Joshua Meador and an effects team feeding leaves to wind
photo courtesy of Andrea Atchinson, daughter of Disney artist, Jack Boyd |
animation effects for what would later become the highly regarded sci-fi Classic, Forbidden Planet.
But for Josh, Disney was his day job, painting was his passion. Today he is known primarily for his striking landscapes. When the work week at Disney was done, weekends were often spent with the family station wagon pulling a teardrop trailer. Josh's son Philip reports that he and Libby would take long walks while Josh and the family dog would find an interesting locale and paint. Besides providing companionship, the dog protected Josh from being startled by passers by.
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His favored painting tool was the palette knife. He first sketched in his subject in the broadest sense with a brush and thinner on stretched fine-linen canvas. Then would switch to the palette knife to complete the painting.
Later, in his La Crescenta studio, he would finalize and sign his work. Josh and Libby lived in La Crescenta, California, and were good friends of other nearby painters, among them some from the previous generation, Conrad and Mary Buff and Stephen Seymour Thomas.
Later in Josh's career, he did some notable commision pieces, one for Walt Disney's Smoke Tree Ranch near Palm Springs, one for Vandenburg Air Force Base at the beginning of the space race, a painting for President Lyndon Johnson when he was in office, and just prior to his death, he was commissioned by NASA to go aboard an aircraft carrier and paint returning Apollo astronauts, an honor he did not live to fulfill.
Josh and Libby were high school sweethearts in Columbus, Mississippi. Both were quite bright. Josh received a nomination to attend the Naval Academy at Annapolis, but turned it down. He wanted to follow his passion and paint. After visiting New York and Pittsburg trying to find the right art school for him, he arrived Art Institute of Chicago in 1931, the same year Josh and Libby were married. He studied illustration, painting, portraits, and etching. After graduation in 1935, Josh and Libby came to California where Josh applied and went to work for Walt Disney. Four years later, Philip was born, Josh continued working for Disney until 1960, making an agreement with Walt Disney that Josh would return from his studio for special projects. Back to top of the page.
Source: Conversation with Libby, Philip and Hildur Meador on the occasion of their visit to Bodega Bay Heritage Gallery, July 6, 2006 and subsequent visits. Other sources include AskArt, Edan Hughes, Artists in California 1786 - 1940, 3d ed.; www.laughingplace.com/News-ID10019010.asp
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