JamesM

I noticed that legendary matte artist Peter Ellenshaw, who worked for Korda and P&P before being drawn to Disney, has his own family website.

Peter Ellenshaw | Harrison Ellenshaw

and features details of his new autobiography, Ellenshaw Under Glass: Going to the Matte for Disney

Ellenshaw Under Glass -- Going to the Matte for Disney

JamesM

Here is another site. There are some snippets of his book available to read.

Ellenshaw Under Glass -- Going to the Matte for Disney

Steve Crook

There's also one about W. Percy "Poppa" Day at Walter Percy Day a. k. a. Pop or Poppa, painter and film designer

Peter was the stepson of Poppa Day and learnt a lot about special effects and matte painting from him. The site is by Susan Day who is Poppa Day's grandaughter and some complication relative of Peter's. I say complicated because they did have a very confusing and complicated family tree. See the PaPAS site

Steve

JamesM

R. I. P. 1913-2007

king of tanks

Have just received this book from the Ellenshaw family company and it is superb with many examples of the matte work done on films from Treasure Island, Quo Vadis, Robin Hood etc.
Ken Annakin says he first saw Peters work on Robin Hood and became so taken with it he used up to 70 mattes on Sword an the Rose. He says that Peter could paint in the background and make it look even realer than real.
He painted in London for Mary Poppins.
Incredible to see some of the scenes where his matte paintings were done. They add a dimension to the films that could not have been got otherwise and Walt Disney quickly realised this.