Ralph Hulett 70+ reasons it’s Christmas

Hi Everyone and welcome to my last blogpost for 2024.

I very nearly resorted to using an old post I had assembled before, but then (as if by magic) my rabbit-hole-internet-wanderings took me for a visual stroll through the many Christmas card images of Disney background artist Ralph Hulett (1915-74). In an instant, I was hooked ! Hopefully when you see his work, you will be too : )

With a glint in my eye to the work of Evyind Earle another amazing Disney artist, I took great pleasure in discovering more about Ralph’s work and most importantly for us here today, the huge number of Christmas Card designs he created for the company, California Artists (CA) back through the 40’s to the 70’s.

From someone who worked on the Disney film ‘The Aristocats’,

you might be able to see where some of Raph’s Card ideas may have derived from lol.

Ralph studied at the Chouinard Art Institute when it was located in MacArthur Park during the 1920s and 30s. His teachers included the masters of California landscape painting, including Millard Sheets and Phil Dike. “That was the Disney art school. It’s the beginning of CalArts,” says animation historian Jerry Beck. “Walt Disney knew that in order to mature the progress of the animated film, he didn’t just want cartoonists. He wanted to make animation a fine art. He wanted the respect of the filmmaking community.”

He painted backgrounds and worked on features from the time he arrived at the Disney studios to work on the first feature film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, released in 1937. He contributed to all the features and shorts of the company’s golden age, including Pinocchio, Dumbo, and Fantasia, all the way through the 1960s and 70s with The Jungle Book, The Aristocats, and Robin Hood. “Ralph’s name is on every great Disney feature. The guy is a legend,” Beck says. “You really had to earn that credit. You had to be amazing. You had to be pivotal. If you worked on the film for years and left before it was finished, you wouldn’t get credit.”

Just look at these beautiful secenes of village life, which also reminds me of the work of Mary Blair.

He not only created amazing scenes from nature….

.. but he also had a great sense of humour and a vivid imagination for creating scenes and senarios in which Santa played the staring role… obviously !

I love Santa on the roller coaster ride.

I could feel where the likes of Charley Harper could have been working along similar ideas at a similar time.

Townscapes too.

Some with a more religious theme.

And plenty of joy and fun.

Even taking elements from the world around him.

Ralph also was a prolific fine-art watercolorist and oil painter, focusing on cityscapes and landscapes of Los Angeles and Southern California. Here’s just a few.

And to end today’s post with a beautiful sleigh driven illustration through the snow filled woodland. What could be more Christmassy ?

If you enjoyed this post you might also like this one about Walt Peregoy .

Wishing everyone a fab ‘n’ festive break, wherever you might be. Please tell your friends about Fishinkblog and if you’d like to support me and make a donation or ceramic purchase, or find out more about my work, do pop over here on Instagram. Many thanks and a very Merry Fishmas, Craig x