JAMES COLEMAN

James Coleman James Coleman was born in 1949 in Hollywood, California. He got his first job at Disney Studios, in the mailroom, through his mother, who was a secretary there. His big break came when he entered a painting in the Disney Studio Art Show. Ken Anderson, a top artist and story man for Disney, saw his potential and encouraged Coleman to go into animation background painting. This landed him his first job as a background painter on Disney's “The Rescuers”. He was 26 years old. Coleman's career took off after that:

Art, Life, Studies, and career As a child, James Coleman just loved to draw and paint. He did not attend a formal art school but started off in the mail room at Disney studios where his mother worked. A background artist or sometimes called a background stylist or background painter is one who is involved in the process of animation who establishes the color, style, and mood of a scene drawn by an animation layout artist. So Coleman painted the landscape backgrounds for many of the Disney movies you see, from the hundred acre woods of “Winnie the Pooh” to the undersea images of “The Little Mermaid” to the majestic woods in ‘Beauty and the Beast”. He chooses most of the time to work in oil paint, but dabbles in many other mediums as well.

“Working for Disney was a major event for me. At first, I didn't realize just how major it was. But it literally changed my life. I had no idea what it would lead to.” This led to a career spanning nearly three decades and more than 25 films. But Coleman's true passion always remained in Fine Art, and he eventually left Disney in order to pursue this field full time. He likens this life changing decision to a window needing to be opened: “Windows can be intimidating because you don't know what's out there. But once you step through it, you're faced with this enormous amount of possibility. I never liked looking at windows directly, because once I see one, I have to go through it.” James Coleman. James Coleman quotes and thoughts.

Early Backgrounds for Disney movies Although Coleman started off painting backgrounds, his true love was fine art - and landscapes were his specialty. You can see in the images here where he started painting backgrounds for movies, and then went into full fledged landscape art and paintings. James Coleman, backgrounds and paying homage to “Alice In Wonderland”” James Coleman, backgrounds And paying homage to “Cinderella”

Over the years, Coleman has enjoyed creating many collections. He now has many series of paintings, including Tropical Wooded Romantic Impressions Garden Seabreeze These are from the seabreeze collection.

These are from the Tropical Collection

These are from the woods and garden collections.

More from the woods and garden collections.

The Seabreeze Collection.

More from the Seabreeze Collection.

Coleman continues to paint landscapes and is featured in art galleries around the world for his works of art. Look at the colors, light, reflective techniques with the brush that he uses in all of his paintings.

Coleman talks about how he started loving art. WATCH THIS VIDEO. Just cut and paste this link:

In the video, James Coleman talks about traveling as a young child and seeing things that he wanted to paint. When you watch him paint in this video, do you see all of the colors and the brushstrokes he uses? What techniques do you think you might use to create water or light in a painting? If you have travel (even if it’s just down the street or in the woods where Mr. Houser and Mrs. Pyles take you for art and nature walks), what would you draw that you might remember?

More of Coleman’s paintings.

If you look closely, what do you see in the way that James Coleman painted his landscapes? What brush techniques did he employ? Look at the light and shadow of the details in his paintings. Look at the color variations of hue and contrast. If you were to really look at an objects details, how would you choose to paint or draw them?

Questions and Discussion: How did James Coleman see the world in a different way, from a different perspective? Let’s talk about landscapes, and what we see when we travel or just take a walk down the street. Do you notice your environment? Do you notice the light through the trees, or a reflection in a puddle of water? What kind of colors do we see? Especially in the fall and the spring. Are they different? How would we paint them? If you had to draw a landscape, how would you do it? James Coleman does not just draw landscapes, but he draws what HE sees in this way, he paints his interpretation. What do you think YOUR interpretation would be? TIME FOR THE ACTIVITIES!