Born in New York in 1916, Eyvind Earle was always a prolific artist and intellectual. When Earle was ten years old, his father challenged him to either read fifty pages of a book each day, or paint a picture every day – Earle decided to do both. His skills, especially as an artist, grew quickly and by the time he was fourteen years old he had his first one-man exhibition in France. He then spent a great deal if time traveling and exhibiting his work and in 1939 one of his paintings was purchased by the Metropolitan Museum of Art for their permanent collection. In 1951 Earle was hired by Walt Disney Studios as a background painter for award-winning animated films and he was the man behind the styling, background, and colors for “Sleeping Beauty,” as evidence by its magical, medieval style.
After fifteen years in the animation business, Earle returned to painting full-time in 1966 and spent the rest of his life doing that. Over the next few decades, he had countless solo exhibitions across the United States and abroad, including ones in London, Japan, France. In 1991 his illustrated autobiography, Horizon Bound on a Bicycle was published, as was his book, The Complete Graphics of Eyvind Earle and Selected Poems and Writings, 1940-1990. After countless shows exhibiting his work and honoring his lifetime of achievements both in animation and in painting, Eyvind Earle passed away on 20 July 2000.
Earle’s early work was strictly realistic, but by the time he was twenty-one his style was characterized by a magical simplicity and directness. This transition was influenced by his study of the work of Van Gogh, Cezanne, Rockwell, Kent, and Georgia O’Keefe, and the end result was wildly popular. He is known for his unique perspective of landscapes; his paintings capture both the grandeur and the simplicity of the countryside. Both primitive and mysteriously advanced, Earle’s paintings portray a search for something. As he explained it, “For seventy years I’ve painted paintings, and I’m constantly and everlastingly overwhelmed at the stupendous infinity of Nature. Wherever I turn and look, there I see creation. Art is creating … art is the search for truth.”
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