D.
Alanson Spencer 1911-1999
Duncan
Alanson Spencer was born in
Los Angeles
,
California
. Spencer attended
Chounard
Art
School
in LA, and served an apprenticeship under Arthur Beaumont for two
years. Most of his artistic education was received during this
apprenticeship period. It was also during this time that he was accepted
into the prestigious Painters and Sculptors Club of Los Angeles.
After leaving Mr. Beaumont in 1932, Mr. Spencer had the opportunity to
work with Maynard Dixon and went on to do a great deal of sketching and
painting in the field. Since jobs were scarce, he took a job in a frame
shop where he learned to make frames, and up until his death made and
carved most of his own frames.
In 1937 that he began a career that would span 38 years and some 400
movies working for MGM Studios, Columbia Pictures and Fox Studios. What
free time he had was spent with a group of other artists from MGM on
sketching trips around the
Los Angeles
area. Among the many well remembered movies that Mr. Spencer worked on
are “White Christmas”, “The Wizard of Oz”, and “National
Velvet”.
In
1957 that he painted the Grand Canyon Diorama for the Anaheim
Disneyland, as well as working on several other fantasyland rides.
In
1962-63, he was the sub-contracting artist for the IBM exhibit at the
New York
World’s Fair. He painted the art for the backgrounds on the mechanical
exhibits that IBM displayed.
In
1965, he left the motion picture industry for a short while to paint the
background for the Elephant Habitat Group at the Los Angeles County
Museum of Natural History. He was then requested to paint many other
habitat backgrounds at the museum.
In 1972, Mr. Spencer painted a mural of the
Mississippi River
as seen from a riverboat. The mural, which was 192 feet long and 16 feet
high, showed the landscape of the
Memphis
,
Tennessee
area around 1870. The Schlitz Brewing Company (Now Coors) contracted
this mural for use in their Hospitality House in
Memphis
.
He then lived in
Denver
for a short time while working on habitats at the Denver Museum of
Natural History. His last major project was for the Smithsonian
Institute in
Washington
,
D.C.
He painted a diorama of the Capital building entitled, “We the
People” which hangs in the Smithsonian in the Political Hall.
Mr.
Spencer claimed to have retired residing with his wife Alice of 53
years, in a renovated stage coach stop in northern
California
, but seemed to work harder than ever at his two great passions,
painting and gardening. Mr.
Spencer was an active member of the American Water Color Society and the
AICA –American Indian and Cowboys of America. Spencer won numerous
awards including the “Eagle Feather Award.”
The
first question he was usually asked concerning his work is how long it
takes to complete a picture. His answer, invariably, was that it has
taken a lifetime. He felt that he was always learning something new from
every painting and conscientiously tried to improve with every new
project.
His
customers liked to know if western American art is all he paints and,
while he is by no means limited to this style, the “
Four Corners
County
” was his favorite and had been a life-long love. When asked why, he
simply answers, “I haven’t worn it out yet.” He tried to visit the
reservations and area around there at least once a year.
He also
painted a lot of the landscape in and around
Yosemite
National Park
where he had lived. His
paintings are scattered throughout the
United States
as well as
Canada
and
Europe
and in many private collections such as that of the late Senator Barry
Goldwater and his work had even been added to the Santa Fe Collection.
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