Elmer Plummer

Elmer Ginzel Plummer (1910-1987) was a gifted American watercolor painter and Walt Disney animator whose dual career combined the vibrant world of California Regionalist painting with the golden age of animated film. Born in Redlands, California, Plummer developed his interest in art early in life. As a young boy he became close friends with Preston and Lee Blair, future fellow Walt Disney animators, and Lee Blair would eventually serve as president of the California Watercolor Society. This early network of artistic friendships would shape the direction of Plummer's professional life.

As a teenager Plummer was sent to military school in San Diego, and he later studied watercolor painting in high school before attending the Chouinard Art Institute in the 1920s on a scholarship. At Chouinard he studied under Millard Sheets and Clarence Hinkle, two of the leading California painters of the era, receiving the foundational training that would define his mature watercolor practice. While he was still a student at Chouinard, Plummer was chosen as one of the assistants to David Alfaro Siqueiros, who designed a mural for the art school's courtyard. Working alongside the great Mexican muralist gave the young Plummer direct exposure to one of the most consequential artistic figures of his era.

Plummer became a close friend of Walt Disney and developed many of the comedic ideas for cartoons featuring Goofy. He also contributed to the production of Fantasia, Dumbo, and The Three Caballeros, working within the celebrated Disney studio during its most creative period. Alongside his animation work, Plummer began in the 1930s to produce accomplished watercolors in the California Regionalist style. He sold his pictures at Los Angeles-area galleries and at various art shows along the West Coast, and he also created watercolors for the Works Progress Administration during the Depression years, exhibiting his art widely during this period.

After service in the Second World War, Plummer returned to the Disney Studios and taught at the Chouinard Art Institute. He continued to paint, but he no longer exhibited his artwork after 1945, retreating from public artistic life while continuing his career in animation and teaching. He passed away in 1987. His watercolors are held in significant California collections and remain valued examples of California Regionalist painting from a particularly rich chapter of American art.