A Tribute to John Horny

Here is a tribute to a great artist that i want dot do since a long time: John Horny is not only a fantastic painter but he has worked for Walt Disney Imagineering on many Disney theme parks projects including Disneyland Paris, Hong Kong Disneyland, Westcot, and many more. We will have a look today at some of his works for DLP beginning by one of his most known painting, i.e the great Pirates of Caribbean artwork that you can see above. Note that it's here the high-res file we used in the DLP book so it might take some time to appear on the screen.

Among the other artworks that John did for DLP was a series of paintings for Frontierland or Adventureland which served as inspiration for WDI Imagineers that were designing the lands. Let's begin by those for Frontierland which shows a series of Frontierland characters. The first one below is of course related to the Lucky Nugget Saloon.



...Just like this other artwork showing one of the girls of the saloon...



This next painting shows the blacksmith - you can see his workshop located almost in front of Big Thunder entrance.



DLP fans will recognize on this next painting the architecture of the Fuente Del Oro and, yes, the character swashbuckling on the roof in the background is Zorro!



This Indian Navajo painting is related to the Indian teepees at the entrance but also the area in the back of Frontierland, near the Cowboy Cookout Barbecue where there was a shop, now unfortunately closed, selling indian/mexican merchandise.



This last character painting is showing a medecine man selling his supposed magical potions.



For DLP Adventureland John Horny also did some brilliant artwork, and you'll find some of them in my book but here is two less known paintings, the first one below showing of course a Jungle Cruise scene. I remind you that the Jungle cruise attraction has been envisioned for DLp before WDI Imagineers changed their mind and decided to don't bring the Disneyland beloved attraction in DLP Adventureland.



This next one is even more rare as it shows what could have been built instead of the Indiana Jones and the Temple of Péril coaster ride. Back in the 1990's John has been asked to create a rendering showing a coaster set in a dinosaurs paleontological field. Finally, the Indy ride is the one which was built but we could have had this Dinos coaster instead of the Temple du Péril.



Among others Disney theme parks John Horny also did some renderings for Westcot, like this one done for the Westcot Europe Bay part...



...or this one created when Hong Kong Disneyland was in its early stage. If you look well you'll see that a Lion King Pride rock might have been build in front of Tarzan Trehouse, but also that a Big Thunder Mountain was envisioned as a "future attraction" and you can see its silhouette in the background.



Most of these images are coming from John Horny website on which you can see many more of his work whether it is for Disney or Landmark, including artwork for Disney theme parks that never were.

You can also find more renderings from John in my DLP book, currently on its way to be reprinted and i remind you that you have only two more weeks to place your pre-order for a collector's copy.



Pictures: copyright John Horny - Disney