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(below) A real life Sorcerer's Apprentice, Joshua Meador and an effects film crew capture the magic of color splashes as Walt Disney (right) and effects artist Jack Boyd (left) look on. photo courtesy of Andrea Atkinson, daughter of Disney artist, Jack Boyd

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Joshua Meador and Walt Disney Photo
Joshua Meador Self Portrait at approximately age 43
Josh, a Self Portrait

(courtesy of the Meador family)
Joshua Meador artist for Walt Disney and CaliforniaLandscape Painter
Away from the studio,
with his ever present sketch pad

You've seen Joshua Meador's artistry before. As Disney Studio's Director of Special Animated Effects, Josh Meador participated in most of the famed Disney classics you know and love. Josh was always grateful to Walt Disney for hiring him during the Great Depression after graduating cum laude from the Art Institute of Chicago, and and he truly loved his "day job" at Disney.

Beyond the Disney Studios, Josh was a remarkable landscape artist, known for his palette knife paintings. While still under studio contract for special projects at Disney, he maintained studios and galleries, first in Carmel Highlands and later in Caspar, just north of Mendocino.

In 1959, the prestigious California Art Club introduced Josh for his art talk and demonstration ... "highly individualistic and his technique definitely his own. ... He is able to produce a feeling of boldness with restraint, and create in the beholder the mood which the artist is endeavoring to express! We are in for an artistic treat through the visit and demonstration of Joshua Meador." His works were exhibited in museums and galleries throughout California. Currently, a painting of Walt's ranch in Palm Springs is on display at the Walt Disney Family Musuem in San Francisco. read more below...

See Josh in these Disney Shorts (click icons)
Walt Disney Josh Meador Four Artists Paint One Tree
Tricks of our Trade Walt Disney Short Film
1958 ... In 4 Artists Paint 1 Tree Josh paints an oak tree while explaining his palette knife techniques. 1954 ... In Tricks of Our Trade, Josh animates volcanic lava bubbles for Fantasia.
Joshua Meador Tending the Net
Tending the Net
36 x 30
Meador family collection

Larger Works
Medium Sized Works | Smaller Works
Newly OfferedJoshua Meador In Search of Truth Midsized Thumbnail
The Search for Truth
24 x 34
Meador Family Collection

Joshua Meador Strolling in the Park Midsized Thumbnail
Strolling in the Park
24 x 36
Meador family collection
Joshua Meador The Last Symphony Midsized Thumbnail
The Last Symphony
24 x 34
Meador family collection,
done in honor of Salvador Dali's visit to the Disney Studios in 1947
Joshua Meador Sheep Ranch Mendocino Midsized Thumbnail
"Sheep Ranch" Mendocino 24 x 34
Meador family collection
Joshua Meador Road to Town Cambria Midsized Thumbnail
Road to Town (Cambria)
24 x 34
Meador Family Collection

Joshua Meador Glacier Midsized Thumbnail
"Glacier"
24 x 34
Mt. Whitney near Lone Pine, CA

Joshua Meador Beach at Caspar Point
"Caspar Point" 22 x 34
(N of Mendocino)
Meador family collection
Joshua Meador Rainy Day Midsized Thumbnail
"Rainy Day" (Bodega, CA) 22 x 30
Joshua Meador To Water Midsized Thumbnail
"To Water" 22 x 30
Joshua Meador Village by the Sea Haystack Rock Cannon Beach Oregon Midsized Thumbnail
Village by the Ocean 24 x 34
Haystack Rock, Cannon Beach, Oregon
Joshua Meador Generations Midsized Thumbnail
Generations 22 x 30
Meador Family Collection
Joshua Meador El Patio de San Miguel Midsized Thumbnail
"El Patio de San Miguel"
22 x 30
Meador family collection
Joshua Meador Captain Vallejo's Casa
Captain Vallejo's House
22 x 30
Joshua Meador Cliff Shapes Caspar
Cliff Shapes (Caspar) 22 x 30
Joshua Meador Park
Park
22 x 30
Bodega Bay Heritage Gallery | 1785 Coast Highway One, PO Box 325 Bodega Bay, CA 94923 | 707-875-2911 | Email Us
Medium Sized Works
Larger Works | Smaller Works
Toward San Jacinto
Toward San Jacinto
Disney Collection
20 x 27
Courtesy of the Meador Family
Joshua Meador Chicken Race Santo Domingo Pueblo
Chicken Race, Santo Domingo Pueblo
Meador Family Collection
20 x 27
Joshua Meador Rural Delivery Midsized thumbnail
Rural Delivery 20 x 27
Meador Family Collection
Joshua Meador Inner Harbor Midsized Thumbnail
Inner Harbor (Bodega Bay)
18 x 24on
Joshua Meador Newport Harbor Oregon Midsized Thumbnail
Newport Harbor Oregon 20 x 26
Joshua Meador Pacific Cove Midsized Thumbnail
Pacific Cove 20 x 27
Joshua Meador Bodega Pier Midsized Thumbnail
"Bodega Pier" Bodega Bay
20 x 27
Joshua Meador Rock Fishing
Rock Fishing
20 x 2720 x 27
Joshua Meador Sierra Cabin Bishop Midsized Thumbnail
Sierra Cabin Bishop
Joshua Meador Warming in the Sun Midsized Thumbnail
"Warming in the Sun"
20 x 27
Joshua Meador Hill Village Midsized Thumbnail
"Hill Village" 1951
Joshua Meador Duncans Mills Midsized Thumbnail
Duncans Mills, circa late 1940's
227
Joshua Meador A Clear Crispy Day Midsized Thumbnail
"A Clear Crispy Day"
20 x
Joshua Meador Pier at Monterey Midsized Thumbnail
"Pier at Monterey"
18 x 24
Joshua Meador Desert Landscape Midsized Thumbnail
Desert Landscape
20 x 27
Meador family collection
 
Bodega Bay Heritage Gallery | 1785 Coast Highway One, PO Box 325 Bodega Bay, CA 94923 | 707-875-2911 | Email Us

Smaller Works
Larger Works | Medium Sized Works
Joshua Meador Palm Springs Midsized Thumbnail
"Palm Spring" 14 x 18
Disney Collection,
Courtesy of the Meador Family
Joshua Meador Caspar Inlet Midsized Thumbnail
Caspar Inlet 16 x 12
Meador Family Collection
Joshua Meador Shoreline Midsized Thumbnail
Shoreline 16 x 12
Meador Family Collection
Joshua Meador Red Roses Midsized Thumbnail
Red Roses
10 x 8
Meador Family Collection
Joshua Meador Jack's Horses Midsized Thumbnail
Jack's Horses
14 x 18
Meador Family Collection
Joshua Meador Quaking Aspens Midsized Thumbnail
"Quaking Aspens"
12 x 16
Joshua Meador Flaming Sunsent
Flaming Sunset 6 x 8
Joshua Meador Sandpipers Midsized Thumbnail
Sandpipers 6 x 8
Joshua Meador Modernist Pier Midsized Thumbnail
Modernist Pier
6 x 8
Meador Family Collection
Joshua Meador Figures on a Beach Midsized Thumbnail
Figures on a Beach
6 x 8
Meador Family Collection
Joshua Meador Estuary Seabirds Midsized Thumbnail
Estuary Seabirds
6 x 8
Joshua Medor Marine Rocks Midsized Thumbnail
Marine Rocks
6 x 8
Meador Family Collection
Joshua Meador Sketch Outdoor Market Midsized Thumbnail
Sketch: Outdoor Market
6 x 8 1/4
Meador Family Collection
Joshua Meador Sketch Sonoma Coast Midsized Thumbnail
Sketch: Sonoma Coast
6 x 8 1/4
Meador Family Collection
 
Bodega Bay Heritage Gallery | 1785 Coast Highway One, PO Box 325 Bodega Bay, CA 94923 | 707-875-2911 | Email Us

Joshua Meador Photo at Garrapata State Park near Carmel California
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.

Joshua Meador painting in the film Four Artists Paint One Tree
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.
Four Artists Paint One Tree Joshua Meador, Marc Davis, Eyvind Earle, and Walt Paragoy
The artists and their paintings for "Four Artists Paint One Tree,"
from left, Joshua Meador, Marc Davis, Eyvind Earle, and Wa
lt 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.

Joshua Meador at work at Disney Studios
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


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.

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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