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Truly one of my favorite illustrators. I really admire Blair’s grasp of color.

Her palettes start with these natural, desaturated colors that she layers over with bright, decidedly unreal hues. Everything ends up being so well-balanced on the page. It gives her pieces this great blend of the mundane and the fantastic.

I think a lot of illustration today practically assaults the viewer. The linework is slick and often heavy; colors are too-bright against a minimal field. By contrast, Blair’s is more contemplative– there is restraint at work.

Most of all, I dig Blair’s forms: that strong, yet fluid, “gestural geometry” I find so appealing in artists like Modigliani and Matisse and in contemporary illustrators like Bruce Timm. (I think it speaks to the architect in me.)

Cynics might dismiss her work as “cute”, but Mary Blair was ahead of her time. Look at all the work today that is inspired by Disney animation –Pixar, for example. Blair’s legacy is a part of that.

For more examples of Blair’s work, check out these collections on Flickr and Drawn!.