Elmer Plummer

Elmer Plummer (1910-1987) Born: Redlands, CA; Studied: Chouinard Art Institute (Los Angeles); Member: California Water Color Society. Elmer Plummer grew up in Redlands, California. As a child, he was friends with Phil Dike, Lee Blair and Preston Blair, but when he was a teenager, he was sent to military school in the San Diego area. He studied watercolor painting in high school and received further instruction from Millard Sheets when he attended the Chouinard Art Institute during the late 1920s.

Plummer soon became close friends with Walt Disney and worked at the Disney Studios. He produced art and developed many of the gag and comic ideas for cartoon shorts featuring Goofy. Some of the feature films he contributed to include Fantasia, Dumbo and The Three Caballeros. During the 1930s, he produced many outstanding California Style regionalist watercolors.

He often chose to depict city scenes with cars, buildings and people. They were sold at Los Angeles art galleries and established in West Coast art shows. After World War II, Plummer continued working on special projects for Walt Disney and taught art at the Chouinard Art Institute. He occasionally painted, but rarely exhibited his art after the mid-1940s.

Biographical information: Interview with Elmer Plummer, 1984. Biography courtesy of California Watercolors 1850-1970 -http://www.californiawatercolor.com/pages/elmer-plummer-biography