Our guest curator this week is Martin Salazar, our Art Conservator. We asked him to pick his favorite artifact from our Collection and write about why he chose it. Here's his pick:
When I was asked to select an object from the Walt Disney Family Foundation collection, this pastoral scene is the first object that came to mind.
This beautiful artwork was created by Roy Forkum as a concept painting. Concept paintings were used to convey a visual representation of an idea for a scene. In this case, this object was most likely used in the process of selecting a color palette for the production of Fantasia.
The shape of the board and the numerous notations on the margins are evidence that this painting was likely used in the multiplane camera to film some of the opening scenes for The Pastoral Symphony sequence.
What makes this piece even more special to me is that on close examination, we discovered that this is an oil painting over a photograph. It shows me that in the creative process, artists at the Walt Disney Studios were combining technologies and various mediums to achieve their artistic visions.
I love this object not only for its enormous aesthetic beauty but also because it provides us with a great deal of information on how Fantasia evolved during production. This painting is certainly one of the treasures in the WDFF collection.
Martin Salazar
Art Conservator