From Milne to Disney Movies: The history and art of Winnie the Pooh

By Leslie Combemale | March 26, 2024

It’s actually officially spring, and so like the bear with very little brain, i was racking mine to think of the best idea for a blog that celebrated a Disney character that exists in a natural world we’d most enjoy in spring, and of COURSE I realized Winnie the Pooh is the perfect subject! Then …

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Long Lost John Alvin Blade Runner Art Recovered!

By Leslie Combemale | April 4, 2024

Long lost John Alvin Blade Runner art has been recovered in a settlement that represents a landmark win for illustrators and artists’ rights. As many of you know, not only do we sell Disney Fine Art and original production art from cartoons and live action films, Leslie of ArtInsights is also the official representative for …

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Women Rocking Hollywood: Live Action Female Filmmakers and The Women of Disney Fine Art

By Leslie Combemale | April 10, 2024

Recently, we travelled to LA for WonderCon to present the 10th Women Rocking Hollywood panel. The event is part of the other life of ArtInsights co-owner Leslie Combemale (that’s me!) as a film journalist, writing for the Motion Picture Association and on the Alliance of Women Film Journalist site. I am an enthusiastic supporter of …

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Blog Archive

Animator Bob Clampett, Ruth Clampett, and The art of Beany and Cecil

By Leslie Combemale | May 19, 2020

For Father’s Day, an interview with Ruth Clampett about growing up with Bob Clampett, plus a vintage collection of Beany and Cecil art! We have the incredible luck to have gotten just a few of the extremely rare Beany and Cecil original production cels from the original 1960s show. These Beany and Cecil originals come …

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Scooby-Doo Origins, and the Scooby-Doo Original Production Art Collection

By Leslie Combemale | May 11, 2020

Zoinks! We have Scooby-Doo original production art this week as our Wednesday Wonders, and I’m happy to day we are SUPER timely for once! Let me explain…(and then let me relay some fun facts and info on one of my favorite cartoons, Scooby-Doo!)  This May sees the online release of the computer-animated feature SCOOB!, direct …

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Harry Potter Day, Harry Potter Art, COVID, Kindness, and Contributions

By Leslie Combemale | May 5, 2020

After all is said and done, Harry Potter is about love. It’s about tolerance and hope and acceptance and teamwork.  One of the things that has struck me in the last few days, with HARRY POTTER DAY (the anniversary of The Battle of Hogwarts), is how inspiring the stories of Harry Potter are right now, …

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The Delight of Donald Duck: production art of the famed cartoon character

By Leslie Combemale | April 26, 2020

I love finding vintage cels. I loved even more finding vintage Donald Duck production art. As much as I enjoy a Disney cartoon, I’ve never much been a fan of Mickey Mouse. Friendly, funny, and sweet, he just didn’t resonate with me. Donald Duck? The grumpy Disney duck in Navy uniform (of sorts) is another …

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Our 1990 The Little Mermaid Original Production Cels Collection

By Leslie Combemale | April 21, 2020

Over the years, and there have been many, (we’ve been selling animation since 1988), we’ve sold a LOT of Little Mermaid production cels. So many, in fact, that there are lots of cels that go at auction (and for a pretty penny) that are framed in what I call “The Little Mermaid frame”, which sadly …

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The Story of The Iron Giant, John Alvin, Brad Bird, art, and a pandemic.

By Leslie Combemale | April 21, 2020

What do Vin Diesel, Sylvia Plath, Gun Control, Pete Townsend, John Alvin, and The Sixth Sense have in common?  They are all connected in some way to cult classic and critical darling The Iron Giant, which was famously successful Pixar exec Brad Bird’s directorial debut, back in 1999. At the time, it was a flop. …

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Introducing: The ArtInsights Heroes Initiative

By Leslie Combemale | April 14, 2020

Heroes have generally meant one thing in comics, cartoons, and film. They are the people from other worlds with superhuman strength like Superman, or tortured souls with dark pasts who choose to keep crime-ridden streets safe like Luke Cage and Batman, gods and goddesses like Thor and Wonder Woman, or people thrown into the role …

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ArtInsights Gallery in the Time of Corona

By Leslie Combemale | April 1, 2020

Well this is a fine mess the world has gotten into, no? All politics aside, it’s terrifying to imagine our loved ones, or ourselves at risk to Corona virus, so we at ArtInsights love that people are staying home for as long as is necessary to get this pandemic behind us all. It has brought …

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Animation Artist Bob Singer: Cartoon History-Hanna Barbera and Warner Brothers Artist and his art

By Leslie Combemale | March 31, 2020

When the weirdest, and I’d even say craziest thing that’s happened in our lifetime happened, and a disease started sweeping the world, as an art gallery and small business owner I started thinking about how we’d weather the storm, yes, but I also considered all the artists that we work with who also survive and …

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Exclusive Holiday Charlie Brown Christmas Art Show

By Leslie Combemale | November 26, 2019

Visit ArtInsights for our special Gallery Opening on Black Friday and Small Business Saturday! There’s such a storied history for Bill Melendez and his 1965 classic A Charlie Brown Christmas. Not only have we seen it generation after generation, it remains one of the most watched specials every holiday season. Yes, it is Christian at …

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The Art of Blade Runner by John Alvin

By Leslie Combemale | September 7, 2019

When a future sci-fi classic and an sci-fi-loving art geek collided ArtInsights Gallery just got the last two original paintings representing Blade Runner created by the campaign artist who designed and painted the official movie poster in 1982. John Alvin is the illustrator for the iconic image used to promote what would become one of …

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Peanuts’ Woodstock & the Woodstock Festival

By Leslie Combemale | August 15, 2019

Snoopy’s best friend, Woodstock, the Peanuts character, was named after the Woodstock Music Festival. In celebration of the 50th anniversary, Sopwith Productions is releasing original art used in the making of the Peanuts cartoons! Read all about it here, and see the rare, great Woodstock production cels and drawings on offer!

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Jim Lee Batman art! ArtInsights has Batman: Hush and Batman Detective 1000 fine art exclusives

By Leslie Combemale | June 15, 2019

We are thrilled to announce Warner Brothers has offered us Hush and Detective 1000, two exclusive limited editions based on the art of Jim Lee, the nicest man in comics, and the co-publisher of DC Comics. Can you believe one of them is a worldwide art exclusive coming out right when they are releasing a …

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ArtInsights Gallery: New Look, Same Great Art, Custom Framing

By Leslie Combemale | May 16, 2019
ArtInsights, offering custom framing to Reston, Northern Virginia, and Maryland, as well as animation, film and contemporary art, gets a facelift!

Michael Barry is a master framer, and has been framing since 1979. Now it’s very clear we do custom framing, because says it on our new sign! Until recently lots of people new to the gallery didn’t realize we do framing. We get it. Our vintage Disney art, Star Wars art, Marvel and DC art, …

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Avengers: Invincible by Alex Ross celebrates Marvel heroic mythology

By Leslie Combemale | May 15, 2019

We all saw the colossal success of Avengers: Endgame coming, didn’t we? Maybe how fast it has succeeded took us by surprise, but we all knew a huge blockbuster was coming..so imagine our glee when we scored the exclusive international premiere of Avengers: Invincible, the only official and licensed Avengers: Endgame Marvel art release! Alex …

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Collecting Vintage Photostat Disney Model Sheets: Fake vs Real

By Leslie Combemale | March 3, 2019

In the 30+ years I’ve been selling vintage Disney art, I’ve largely avoided photostat model sheets. I mean, they are copies. They are copies created 50 years or more ago and used by character animators as a roadmap for the artists working under them of how to draw some of the most iconic characters in …

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