Hardie Gramatky
| Hardie Gramatky | |
|---|---|
| Born |
April 12, 1907 Dallas, Texas, U.S. |
| Died | April 29, 1979 (aged 72) Westport, Connecticut, U.S. |
| Occupation | Painter, Author |
| Website | www.gramatky.com |
Bernhard August "Hardie" Gramatky, Jr. (April 12, 1907 - April 29, 1979) was an American painter, author, and illustrator. In a 2006 article in Watercolor Magazine, Andrew Wyeth named him as one of America's 20 greatest watercolorists. He wrote and illustrated several children's books, most notably Little Toot.
Hardie Gramatky was born in Dallas, Texas, the second of three sons born to Bernhard Gramatky and Blanche Gunner Gramatky. Ten years later, following the death of his father, his mother moved the family to the Wilmar – South San Gabriel area, a then semi-rural suburb a few miles east of Los Angeles. Gramatky attended local schools in Wilmar, and then Alhambra High School in nearby Alhambra. Displaying a precocious artistic talent, he began submitting his sketches to a "young folks section" published in the Los Angeles Times, and by the early 1920s had earned a reputation as the section's leading artist.
After high school Gramatky moved to Northern California to attend Stanford University. Though he majored in English he continued to study art as well, but after two years at the university one of his professors advised him that the school's art department had no more to teach him, and so he returned to Southern California where, in 1928, he enrolled in Chouinard Art Institute. Developing a deep interest in watercolor painting, he later said that during this period he produced an average of five small watercolors per day. By 1929, he had become a proficient watercolorist and was recognized as one of the true innovators in the development of "California Scene" watercolor painting. These skills helped him to get a job that year as a senior animator at the Walt Disney Studios, where he remained for the next six years.
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