Description
Bambi’s First Year by Thomas Kinkade
Disney Dreams Collection. Published March 2010. Image Size: 12″ x 18″. Standard Numbered 399.
Thomas Kinkade Studios Limited Edition Canvas is hand-retouched by skilled artisans, giving the painting a look almost identical to the artist’s on-easel original. Vibrant colors, rich textures and color tones accurate to Thom’s original brushstrokes are the hallmarks of your finished piece. All Limited Edition prints are created using high quality acid-free canvas or paper.
Learn about the different editions from the Thomas Kinkade Statement of Editions
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Artist Notes
Thomas Kinkade creation of Disney’s Bambi: When I set myself the goal of creating the twelve epic paintings for the Kinkade Disney Dreams Collection, I knew it would be a vast undertaking. After all, each painting in the series presents a vision of the entire movie in one image – what I like to call a “narrative panorama”. To suggest the moment of Bambi’s empowerment, I positioned him on a rocky precipice overlooking the terrain of his kingdom and the four seasons of his first year. If you look closely, Bambi’s self-sacrificing mother can be seen, as a half hidden image upon the distant mountain. Truly, a mother’s love, like the spirit of the mighty mountains, will guide a son forever. The central theme of Bambi is the cycle of the seasons and the ongoing flow of life. Truly, water flows through the world like life itself – a timeless reminder that despite the passing seasons, nature thrives and a new generation is born. I believe Bambi’s First Year is the most breathtaking subject in my Disney Dreams Collection to date. I hope as you look at Bambi cresting the ridge of his domain, you too will feel empowered to live your best life and to count on a season of new beginnings, even when the challenges of life confront you. Truly for Bambi, and for us, life goes on.
-Thomas Kinkade
Key Points
1. Bambi’s First Year is the fifth release in the Disney Dreams Collection. The other four releases in this collection – Snow White Discovers the Cottage, Pinocchio Wishes Upon A Star, Tinker Bell and Peter Pan Fly to Neverland, and Cinderella Wishes Upon A Dream – have proved to be a tremendous success!
2. Thom has included five hidden N’s in Bambi’s First Year, representing the 5th piece in the Disney Dreams Collection. It is the second release in 2010, as well as
the second release in the Epic Eight masterpieces scheduled to release in 2010.
3. The central theme of Bambi, the cycle of life, is represented in Bambi’s First Year, by the flow of water. We see rain which causes snow on the mountains and rivers on the hillside which eventually join with other rivers and cascade over thunderous waterfalls. The element of waterfalls is an effective symbol of the
on-going life force of nature.
4. The rainbow at the lower center of the composition suggests that Bambi, as he is perched on the ridge, is perhaps viewing vision of his early life as seen through the reflective light of memory. The detail and flowers in Bambi’s First Year suggest the innocence and resplendent beauty of spring.
5. Thom has pictured Bambi three times in the image, representing Bambi’s participation in various seasons. The spring world of Bambi as a young deer is seen on the lower left, the summer world of storms and lightening which transitions to the winter world of the high mountains, and Bambi as the playful
participant in the joys of snowfall. To the right is “autumn world”, the moment of Bambi’s eventual empowerment. Make note of the great stag in the distant, silhouetted against the rising mist of an autumn forest. Bambi looks over the scenes of his first year and like the butterfly above him, has emerged from the
chrysalis of youth into the empowerment of a young adult.
6. The mountain in the distance of Bambi’s First Year features the suggestion of the face of Bambi’s mother. Thom intends this element to suggest that the mother is in essence the guiding spirit to Bambi’s life – or in the visual terms of the painting, the “spirit of wilderness”, and as such resides on the towering
mountain that is always in view.
7. As is the case with all of Thom’s Disney Dreams Collection, his intention with Bambi’s First Year is to create a panoramic image that suggests the element of the Bambi story and to expand the world in which the characters live to new epic proportions. The mood and drama of this painting is the best one in the
collection so far.