Peter Ellenshaw

I've been swamped the last few days with calls and projects and more calls and deadlines and work on the Kirby book. I know there have been a lot of postings here but I'll give away a trade secret here and admit that many of them were pre-written and tossed up here to relieve the guilt I feel when I log in and see I haven't updated lately. But a couple of posts were fresh, and there should have been one more about the late Peter Ellenshaw, who passed away on Tuesday. A few years ago, I attended a great evening at the Academy where Mr. Ellenshaw discussed his work and clips were shown. It was stunning. I don't think I'd even begun to appreciate his artistry before that because I hadn't realized the extent of what he did.

Mr. Ellenshaw specialized in matte paintings…paintings that are incorporated into the visuals of a movie, adding details that do not exist in real life. He did it so well that often, you weren't aware that the beautiful image on your screen was primarily an Ellenshaw matte painting. Truly amazing.

So I should have written something earlier. But I couldn't have written anything better than this post, which appeared over at Jim Hill Media.