Meador_Joshua_AAA

His favored painting tool was the palette knife. He first sketched in his subject in the broadest sense with a large brush with black paint mixed with lighter fluid on a stretched 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 and were good friends of other nearby artists, Conrad and Mary Buff and Stephen Seymour Thomas.

Later in Josh's career, he did some notable commision pieces, a group of paintings 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 now on exhibit at the LBJ Presidential Library in Austin, TX. A few months before Josh died, he received a high honor. He was commissioned by NASA to go aboard an aircraft carrier and paint returning Apollo astronauts, an honor he did not live to fulfill.

... an excerpted self-caricature of Josh from his
"I Dreamt I Was Painting." -- private collection

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.

In 1931, Josh and his father took a train trip, first visiting New York and Pittsburg before choosing the Art Institute of Chicago. That same year, Josh and Libby were marrried. 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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Josh, a Self Portrait (courtesy of the Meador family)	Joshua Meador Biography 1911 - 1965
	As Walt Disney Studio's Director of Special Animated Effects, Josh Meador participated in most of the famed Disney classics. Josh was grateful to Walt Disney for giving him an opportunity during the Great Depression. Josh found his "day job" at Disney artistically challenging and rewarding. But beyond the studio, Josh always throught of himself as a landscape painter, first and foremost. In the late 1940's and early 1950's, he frequently visited Bodega Bay and created numerous canvases of Sonoma County scenes.

In 1955, Josh maintained studios and galleries in Carmel Highlands and in 1960 built his dream home and studio in Caspar, CA, just north of Mendocino. READ MORE	Here, Josh demonstrates his palette knife technique in the Walt Disney short film 4 Artists Paint 1 Tree, first broadcast on Disney's TV show in 1958. He explains, "I don't thoroughly mix the colors on the palette, but let them mingle as I spread the paint onto the canvas." You may view 4 Artists Paint one Tree on YOUTUBE.com
ABOVE ... Joshua Meador (atop ladder) creating animation effects with Walt Disney and Disney animator Jack Boyd looking on. Photo is courtesy of Andrea Atkinson, daughter of Jack Boyd.