Disney Limited Edition: The Cat Only Grinned

DISNEY LIMITED EDITION: THE CAT ONLY GRINNED

Jim Salvati

MEDIUM: Hand-Embellished Giclée Print on Canvas
SIZE: 12" x 16"
EDITION SIZE: 195
ARTIST: Jim Salvati
SIGNED: Hand-Signed by Artist
SKU: DFA-LE-CATONLYGRINNED

ABOUT THE IMAGE: Inspired by Walt Disney’s Alice in Wonderland, featuring the Cheshire Cat and Alice. 

ABOUT THE MEDIUM:  Limited edition prints are reproductions of an original piece of art work. The giclée prints on canvas are museum quality prints that last the upwards of 100 years. Giclée printing is a process that uses fade-resistant, archival inks and archival substrates to print on large format printers. The run of prints are capped at a specific number. Limited edition prints can be more valuable to art collectors than prints without a restricted number of copies because of the rarity of the prints. Each piece is hand-numbered and embellished by the artist.  Each piece also includes a Certificate of Authenticity.

ABOUT THE ARTIST:  "I'm a very regular guy; there's nothing fancy about me," says Jim, who grew up surfing the beaches of Southern California and went on to graduate from the prestigious Art Center College of Design in 1982.   "I tell my students that you don't have to be extremely talented to make it. You can make it in life on passion and determination."

Jim has plenty of those two attributes, and he most certainly has "made it" in the art world. He's been a prolific artist for movie studios and theaters, with a client list that includes Disney, Warner Bros., Sony Pictures, Paramount Pictures and Radio City Music Hall. He was the master illustrator and conceptual artist behind many of the memorable images and finished paintings associated with the "Harry Potter" films.

He describes his style as "painterly realism", and his favorite subjects are people. Ask him about a painting, and he will tell you the subject's personal story.  Salvati sees his paintings as his portal into various cultures and different areas of society. "I like the connection between people and their culture," he says. "The different emotions, gestures, moods, environments, and style of people in my life and those that I cross paths with, all become part of my storytelling".

"Even with my Disney art, I think it's important to show who a person or character is and what is the most interesting part of their life—the part that is bold and has guts."  Character and boldness can be observed in the scenes that Salvati chooses to depict. They are often not only a defining moment of a film, but usually the most emotionally charged and sometimes heartbreaking. Bambi alone in the woods, the Huntsman with Snow White, and Scar leaving Simba in the canyon, are all turning points in the story, and when the main character had to show their "guts" or courage.

Working in oil paint, Salvati uses panel and sometimes mounted paper preferring the option of layering paint to create a lot of texture, as he feels that an uneven surface adds to the emotion of the story. "My paintings are extremely thick and layered and oil allows me the time I need to play with the color," he says.

For the past 22 years, he's been teaching at Art Center himself, a gig he's found just as rewarding and inspiring as painting. "I love teaching, and students respond to my style because I'm so down to earth," he says. A byproduct of his years as an instructor is his strong connection to artistic diversity as well as a careful observation of the changing world of art and how art interrelates with technology. His experience and knowledge cross many boundaries into Print, Film, Animation, and the fine arts.

ABOUT THE FILM: Alice in Wonderland is a 1951 American animated musical fantasy-adventure film produced by Walt Disney Productions and based on the Alice books by Lewis Carroll. The 13th release of Disney's animated features, the film premiered in London on July 26, 1951, and in New York City on July 28, 1951. The film features the voices of Kathryn Beaumont as Alice, Sterling Holloway as the Cheshire Cat, Verna Felton as the Queen of Hearts, and Ed Wynn as the Mad Hatter. Walt Disney first attempted unsuccessfully to adapt Alice into an animated feature film during the 1930s, and he revived the idea in the 1940s. The film was originally intended to be a live-action/animated film; however, Disney decided to make it an all-animated feature in 1946.