Who Framed Roger Rabbit: Adventures in Toontown

By Leslie Combemale | January 26, 2024

Why is Who Framed Roger Rabbit: Adventures in Toontown our first blog of 2024? Why are we talking about the animation/live action hybrid’s history and legacy of art? The impetus is that I recently got an email from our Disney Fine Art wholesalers announcing that as of January 23rd, they could no longer sell any …

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Spotlight Series: Disney Dogs – PLUTO

By Leslie Combemale | February 9, 2024

As it’s the early part of 2024, and we at ArtInsights are in a new era with our hybrid in-person and online model, I thought it would be a good idea to start a fresh, fun new Spotlight blog series, and since I grew up in a family always surrounded by canine companions, I decided …

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Welcome Home Franklin: Franklin Armstrong blog and gallery exhibit

By Leslie Combemale | February 16, 2024

Those who’ve been reading my blog for a while, or who have collected art through ArtInsights are well aware that Franklin is my favorite HUMAN character…(Snoopy is my favorite creature, although i LOVE Woodstock!) I wrote a blog about Franklin about 3 years ago, which you can read HERE, about a lot of his history. …

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Blog Archive

Welcome Home Franklin: Franklin Armstrong blog and gallery exhibit

By Leslie Combemale | February 16, 2024

Those who’ve been reading my blog for a while, or who have collected art through ArtInsights are well aware that Franklin is my favorite HUMAN character…(Snoopy is my favorite creature, although i LOVE Woodstock!) I wrote a blog about Franklin about 3 years ago, which you can read HERE, about a lot of his history. …

read more...

Spotlight Series: Disney Dogs – PLUTO

By Leslie Combemale | February 9, 2024

As it’s the early part of 2024, and we at ArtInsights are in a new era with our hybrid in-person and online model, I thought it would be a good idea to start a fresh, fun new Spotlight blog series, and since I grew up in a family always surrounded by canine companions, I decided …

read more...

Who Framed Roger Rabbit: Adventures in Toontown

By Leslie Combemale | January 26, 2024

Why is Who Framed Roger Rabbit: Adventures in Toontown our first blog of 2024? Why are we talking about the animation/live action hybrid’s history and legacy of art? The impetus is that I recently got an email from our Disney Fine Art wholesalers announcing that as of January 23rd, they could no longer sell any …

read more...

Holiday Greetings from Disney Fine Artists

By Leslie Combemale | December 8, 2023

We’re in the midst of Honukkah 2023 and, as Joni Mitchell would say, “It’s coming on Christmas”, and with all that’s happening in the world, it’s something that should be celebrated right now. I’ve discovered, over time, that Disney fans and collectors are the most avid lovers and celebrants of Christmas, Hanukkah, the Winter Solstice, …

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Interview with Beloved Disney Fine Artist Greg McCullough

By Leslie Combemale | November 9, 2023

Greg McCullough is one of the most beloved artists working today, and has a strong following of collectors who seek him out at his Disney events throughout the year. He releases art regularly, and those pieces are only available directly through Disney at his events. Greg has been working in the film and animation industry …

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Interview: Famed Ilustrator & Disney Artist John Rowe

By Leslie Combemale | November 6, 2023

We have loved John Rowe since, well, forever. He has the incredible talent befitting a man with his impressive CV. He’s a movie artist with several high profile images including the poster for Miracle, and a screen-used brochure for John Hammond and his company InGen’s Jurassic Park. He’s an illustrator who learned from some greats …

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Welcome to ArtInsights 2.0: Our Hybrid Online & In-Person Art Gallery Model!

By Leslie Combemale | October 31, 2023

Welcome to ArtInsights 2.0: A Hybrid Online & In-person Model! What, pray-tell, ArtInsights 2.0 look like? That’s what I’m here to lay down. First, for those of you who might want to know why we decided to close our brick and mortar gallery, here’s an article about it published in The Reston Letter,   Essentially, we …

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Top Ten Halloween Cartoons of All Time

By Leslie Combemale | October 13, 2023

Who doesn’t love a Top Ten Halloween Cartoons list? Something about classic scary cartoons stirs up nostalgia more than the average every day animation. Is there something about being scared at the same time as entertained that we hold on to from childhood? Every year at ArtInsights, October has offered the opportunity to play all …

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New Animated Feature The Peasants: Interview, Review, & Exclusive Art

By Leslie Combemale | September 20, 2023

As I recently mentioned (in my latest blog, about the museum show “Ink Tributes” by Marlon West) I’m going to include blog posts about new films, animation and film art news, and other subjects that are not about art in ArtInsights. I’m hoping these (fascinating!) posts will have you coming back when you ARE looking …

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Artist Insights: Disney Artist Marlon West’s Inspiring Ink Tributes

By Leslie Combemale | September 15, 2023

It’s not all about ArtInsights, sometimes it’s about someone really cool doing something inspiring…It isn’t often that my work with ArtInsights and my work amplifying movie artists below the line collide, but here we are! As I move into my the new phase of ArtInsights online, I want to cover some artists and their work …

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Exclusive Interview with Animation Artist Larry Leichliter: On Creating Art, The Great Pumpkin, and his Memories of Peanuts

By Leslie Combemale | August 17, 2023

As part of our Peanuts art special event, “Halloween in August” featuring the new limited edition The Great Pumpkin, award-winning animation director and artist Larry Leichliter added layout drawings to original vintage cels that needed context. Here’s one example:   He is also creating original drawings based on two images from It’s The Great Pumpkin, …

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The Great Pumpkin, Snoopy, and Animation Artist Ed Levitt

By Leslie Combemale | August 17, 2023

Not many people know just how impressive and historic the career of Ed Levitt was. He not only worked on some of the most beloved classic Disney animated features, he also had a huge impact on the design, look, and story of a diverse collection of cartoons released in the 50s and 60s. He was …

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BIG NEWS: ArtInsights is Going Virtual!

By Leslie Combemale | August 10, 2023

Hi! Leslie, co-owner of ArtInsights here, making a big announcement… That’s right, after 30 years in brick and mortar, we’re moving online-ArtInsights is going virtual-we’re SO excited about it, and hope you are, too! We’ve loved being in person and face to face all this time with our framing clients, and some of our art …

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“Like Father Like Son”: Jango, Boba, and John Alvin’s Love of Star Wars

By Leslie Combemale | June 23, 2023

Today, we’re going to talk about Boba and Jango Fett, and a piece created by John Alvin called Like Father Like Son. I love The Mandalorian. I love Padro Pascal, I mean, who doesn’t? In fact, Grogu has become my second favorite Star Wars character after Yoda. All that being said, as bounty hunters go, …

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Peanuts Art: Dean Spille, Lee Mendelson, and Price Increase Alert!

By Leslie Combemale | May 19, 2023

I’ve not written any blogs on price alerts before, but this seemed Charlie Brown and Snoopy art by Dean Spille, and Peanuts art signed by producer Lee Mendelson, who passed away in 2019, seemed a good time to start! These Peanuts art pieces are all based on Dean Spille storyboard color keys, so they are …

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Friz Freleng Pink Panther, and Animation History

By Leslie Combemale | April 20, 2023

For those who love Pink Panther, and for those who just love a good origin story, do I have an animation yarn for you! Perfect to file under “the incredibly true life of a longtime animation art gallery owner”, I’m going to share how I wound up with a box of original production cels and …

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