Frank Armitage (5 September 1924 – 4 January 2016) was an Australian-born American painter and muralist, known for painting the backgrounds of several classic animated Disney films, designing areas of and painting murals for Walt Disney World and Tokyo DisneySea, and his biomedical visualization artwork.Bluff, Julia
"Paso Robles artist has ties to Disney"
''Paso Robles Press'', Paso Robles, California, 28 August 2009: C1. Web. Retrieved 21 July 2013.

Biography

Early life and Mexican mural painting

Frank Armitage was born in Melbourne,

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

. There were 16 years between him and his sister, and without a sibling to play with, he turned his attention to drawing. After serving for his allotted time in the

Royal Australian Air Force "Through Adversity to the Stars" , colours = , colours_label = , march = , mascot = , anniversaries = RAAF Anniversary Commemoration ...

during World War II, he attended art school. He picked up a book about Mexican mural painters at the National Gallery of Victoria and became very interested in the Mexican mural painting movement.Connolly Armitage, Karen, and Frank Armitage
"About Us."
Armitage IMAGES. 2007. Web. Retrieved 21 July 2013. He then quit art school and sailed to Canada, where he worked in Montreal for 18 months to earn enough money to get to Mexico City by bus. Armitage won an international mural contest sponsored by

David Alfaro Siqueiros David Alfaro Siqueiros (born José de Jesús Alfaro Siqueiros; December 29, 1896 – January 6, 1974) was a Mexican social realist painter, best known for his large public murals using the latest in equipment, materials and technique. Along with ...

, and in 1949, Armitage became Siqueiros's assistant. Armitage worked on many murals on public buildings throughout Mexico.

Work for the Walt Disney Company and art career

In 1952, Armitage moved to Los Angeles, California, and began working for Walt Disney Studios. One of his first projects was animation for the 1955 Disney film '' Lady and the Tramp''. Armitage then transitioned to painting backgrounds for other Disney films, such as '' Peter Pan'', '' Sleeping Beauty'', ''

Mary Poppins It may refer to: * ''Mary Poppins'' (book series), the original 1934–1988 children's fantasy novels that introduced the character. * Mary Poppins (character), the nanny with magical powers. * ''Mary Poppins'' (film), a 1964 Disney film sta ...

'', ''

The Jungle Book ''The Jungle Book'' (1894) is a collection of stories by the English author Rudyard Kipling. Most of the characters are animals such as Shere Khan the tiger and Baloo the bear, though a principal character is the boy or "man-cub" Mowgli, ...

'', and the '' Disneyland'' episode " Man in Space." Armitage became an Imagineer in 1977 and began helping to design the Disney theme parks. His work of anatomical figures helped create the Wonders of Life Pavilion in Epcot. He also painted 5,500 square feet of murals for the Safari Fare Restaurant in Walt Disney World. Several of the murals in Tokyo DisneySea are also of his creation, including nine of Theodore Roosevelt at the Teddy Roosevelt Lounge in the American Waterfront, corridor panels in the Hotel MiraCosta, the Broadway Bar, and four in the Tokyo DisneySea City Hall."Frank Armitage."
ECR Gallery. 2007. Web. Retrieved 21 July 2013. After his retirement, Armitage returned to Walt Disney World to create the murals of camouflaged animals in the Pizzafari restaurant at

Disney's Animal Kingdom Disney's Animal Kingdom Theme Park is a zoological theme park at the Walt Disney World Resort in Bay Lake, Florida, near Orlando. Owned and operated by The Walt Disney Company through its Parks, Experiences and Products division, it is the l ...

.Collins, Jamie
"Exploring Pizzafari At Disney's Animal Kingdom."
Only WDWorld. June 2010. Web. Retrieved 21 July 2013. Armitage made the production illustration and Academy Award-winning set designs for the 1966 sci-fi film '' Fantastic Voyage''. He painted scenes of the interior of the human body, which were then turned into larger-than-life sets. He also created several landscape paintings for

Life magazine ''Life'' was an American magazine published weekly from 1883 to 1972, as an intermittent "special" until 1978, and as a monthly from 1978 until 2000. During its golden age from 1936 to 1972, ''Life'' was a wide-ranging weekly general-interest ma ...

. In 1971, he partnered with photographer

Lennart Nilsson Lennart Nilsson (24 August 1922 – 28 January 2017) was a Swedish photographer noted for his photographs of human embryos and other medical subjects once considered unphotographable, and more generally for his extreme macro photography. He ...

for a project on the function of the brain. Armitage created the background art for fourteen episodes of

The Dick Tracy Show ''The Dick Tracy Show'' is an American animated television series based on Chester Gould's comic strip crime fighter. The series was produced from 1961 to 1962 by UPA. In the show, policeman Dick Tracy employed a series of cartoony subordinat ...

and nine episodes of

The Mr. Magoo Show ''Mister Magoo'' is an American animated television series which was produced from November 7, 1960 to February 2, 1962. A single episode included five four-minute shorts and could either be aired together with bumpers as a single half-hour show, ...

."Frank Armitage."
IMDb. 2013. Web. Retrieved 21 July 2013. On October 6, 1989, Armitage was given the opportunity to paint a picture of the Dalai Lama while the latter was in a meeting with six neurologists about life after death.

Later life

Armitage retired from the Disney company in 1989. He then studied Eastern medicine at the College of Oriental Medicine and traveled to

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

to learn acupuncture. In 2006, he donated a large portion of his medical artwork to the Biomedical Visualization Graduate Program at the University of Illinois at Chicago. It is kept in a permanent collection on campus in the Department of Biomedical and Health Information Sciences. In early 2010, after seeing a documentary about silverback gorillas, Armitage donated several oil pencil drawings of gorillas to the

Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund The Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International (originally the Digit Fund) is a charity for the protection of endangered mountain gorillas. The Digit Fund was created by Dr. Dian Fossey in 1978 for the sole purpose of financing her anti-poaching patr ...

in Atlanta, Georgia and the Center for Great Apes in Wauchula, Florida. The designs are printed on merchandise such as coffee mugs and T-shirts and then sold to raise money for the organizations.Sutter, Lee
"Paso Robles artist Frank Armitage uses art to help silverback gorillas."
The Tribune 1 March 2010. San Luis Bispo, California. Web. Retrieved 21 July 2013. Armitage volunteered with the Flying Doctors in rural Mexico. He lived near Paso Robles, California, with his wife, Karen Connolly Armitage, who is also a retired Imagineer. They ran an architectural design business called Armitage Images. He also creates oil paintings and murals for private homes. He died at his home in Paso Robles on 4 January 2016 at the age of 91.

Awards and honors

In 2006, the College of Applied Health Sciences, Biomedical Visualization Program, part of the University of Illinois at Chicago, established the annual Frank Armitage Lecture Series, which honors Armitage's anatomical artwork.Klein, Leah
"Frank Armitage Lecture."
The University of Illinois at Chicago. Biomedical Visualization Graduate Program of the University of Illinois at Chicago, 2012. Web. Retrieved 21 July 2013. On July 18, 2009, at the Anaheim Crowne Plaza Resort in Anaheim, California, Armitage was honored as a Disney legend and given the Disney Legend Award by the National Fantasy Fan Club (NFFC), a nonprofit organization dedicated to honoring the life of Walt Disney.Irving, Sasha
"Paso Artist To Be Honored As Disney Legend."
Studios on the Park. 10 July 2009. Web. Retrieved 21 July 2013.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Armitage, Frank 1924 births 2016 deaths Walt Disney Animation Studios people Disney imagineers American muralists 20th-century American painters 20th-century American male artists American male painters 21st-century American painters 21st-century American male artists Australian emigrants to the United States Royal Australian Air Force personnel of World War II Artists from Los Angeles Artists from Melbourne Royal Australian Air Force airmen