At the age of 10 Eyvind Earle's future career was influenced by his father who offered him the ultimatum of reading 50 pages of a book or painting a picture every day. He chose both.
In 1937, for the price of 42 watercolours, 21 year old Earle biked his way from Hollywood to New York using the money earned from his paintings. A few years later the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York purchased one of his paintings for its permanent collection.
In 1951, the American became an assistant background painter for Walt Disney. He remained with Disney for the next 10 years painting settings for classics such as 'Peter Pan,' 'Lady and the Tramp' and 'Sleeping Beauty.'
In addition to paintings, his works included sculptures, scratchboards, water-colours and drawings. Earle's animated characters also appeared on television, including in a nativity scene for 'The Story of Christmas.'
Earle has worked in many different fields including book illustrating, magazine publications and animated commercials for television. At one point in his career, Earle adapted his creative landscapes into Christmas cards, producing over 800 designs that have sold more than 300 million copies through the American Artist Group.
In 1966, Earle returned to painting full-time, working with watercolours, oils, drawings and silkscreens. His work most frequently features the American landscapes he's so enamoured with. Earle's work is particularly noted for his unique representation of distances, landmasses and features of the weather.
Earle's work can be found in the permanent collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
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"Art is creating... art is the search for truth." ~ Eyvind Earle
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