Illustrated Blog Posts

You are witnessing Ulmo bearing Elwing up out of the sea at the moment she is being transformed into the white bird which will fly to safety aboard the ship of her husband, Eärendil. The rush of bubbles from below signals the power of Ulmo lifting her up towards the sky and you can just glimpse the sun through the most transparent part of the water. Around her throat, Elwing wears the jeweled carcanet known as the Nauglamir, into which is set one of the Silmarils. As is told

"If you really want to know what Middle-earth is based on, it’s my wonder and delight in the earth as it is, particularly the natural earth.” - J.R.R. Tolkien, Niekas Publications, 1966 One of the reasons I find painting from Professor Tolkien's legendarium so satisfying is that he based most of the beauty he wrote about on the natural world, and that is a realm I have been observing with love and fascination since I was a toddler. Some of my earliest memories involve the pin

J.R.R. Tolkien's story of Eärendil's heritage is calling to me like the sea this year. In this new painting, you see him in his youth, sitting with his parents, Idril and Tuor, on a great rock at the Havens of Sirion, looking across the water towards the West. Tuor, whom I have recently depicted in his own young days is now a fully mature figure, and this is a family which has been through so much! It is little wonder that the sea-longing comes over this trio, given what they

How great a thing it is to know that after all the storm and stress caused by the Silmarils, "Finrod walks with Finarfin his father beneath the trees in Eldamar." This line from "Of Beren and Lúthien" never fails to stop me in my reading for a moment, to absorb the deep peace of this knowledge. The elves are so caught up in the War of the Jewels, and utterly devastating things happen to so many of them, but Tolkien assures us that Galadriel's brother and father are fine, in t

We never know when the very next moment might bring us a new hope, unlooked-for. Here sits Voronwë, cast ashore, the sole survivor of a failed voyage to Valinor. You can tell he is an elf because of the way in which his submerged boot glimmers under the water. He is in such a state of dismay that he doesn't even care that his foot is dragging in the tide, half lost in Ulmo's realm. His sodden cloak is clasped with a brooch bearing the insignia of Fingolfin, of whose house he

The lives of great women and men sometimes seem to me like pebbles dropped into ponds; circles emanate out from them bringing new light and beauty to the world. The bright rings spreading outwards from J.R.R. Tolkien seem almost endless once you start looking into the water. There is, of course, the famous case of C.S. Lewis, who credited his friend with assisting his conversion to Christianity, without which, we would never have gone through the wardrobe. Lesser known, thoug

J.R.R. Tolkien's The Silmarillion is full of heartbreak and darkness. Some readers have told me they even find it difficult to get through. But here and there, the author gives us glimpses of such sublime beauty that one may have to put the book down, just to try to absorb what Tolkien is describing. Tuor in the Rainbow Cleft is just such a scene, and it was like working with a golden paintbrush and paint made of jewels creating this new depiction. I am in such sympathy with

This is the definition of a red letter day! Christie's has just posted notice of the upcoming auction of a previously-unknown letter of J.R.R Tolkien's, written on February 28th, 1966, to a Miss Jenny Hall of Hillcrest, Hatfield, Herts. I am so grateful to my friend, Graeme Cheadle, for bringing my attention to this letter, and it's hard to imagine a topic that would delight me more, because this missive solves the great mystery of what Sam Gamgee's cousin Hal saw on his hunt

War is the thief of beauty in the world. As is told in J.R.R. Tolkien's Letter Number 340 to his son Christopher: "I never called Edith Lúthien — but she was the source of the story that in time became the chief part of the Silmarillion. It was first conceived in a small woodland glade filled with hemlocks at Roos in Yorkshire (where I was for a brief time in command of an outpost of the Humber Garrison in 1917, and she was able to live with me for a while.) In those days he

As readers, we never get to climb a flet in Lothlórien to see Galadriel and her weavers crafting the grey cloth of which they make their enchanted cloaks and the glimmering hithlain rope that comes to the aid of the Fellowship, but we know such a place exists and that such activities are happening there. This is one of those glorious glimpses J.R.R. Tolkien gives us into the richness and depth of Middle-earth that turn sketches into detailed pictures of life, customs, culture

Here's to the old wives. They could keep a hospitable house, dispense herb-lore, and tell tales only a fool would disregard. They had a rapt audience in the Brothers Grimm, who recorded their knowledge of customs and of cautions, of Faërian folk and of country folk; tales so deep in the "cauldron of story" that no one knows the ancientry of their origins. Any diminishment of the old wives is highly suspect, in my opinion. Does it stem from the very bad myth that women are les

It is said that Galadriel is the most powerful elf left in Middle-earth in the late Third Age, but I would suggest that Glorfindel is the bearer of the most sub-created holiness. He is the one whom J.R.R. Tolkien called "almost angelic"; a being so magnificent that, after he sacrifices himself to enable the escape of many from the fall of Gondolin, he is re-embodied and sent back to these shores. He shows us elves at their very best. He is a healer whose very hand relieves pa

Here and there, someone communicates something that makes you actually clap your hands and raise your voice in a cheer. You cannot help yourself! It happens to me when Théoden King musters the Rohirrim, when a brother of the Oxford Oratory at J.R.R. Tolkien's old church gives an astoundingly resonant homily, when Max McClean's portrayal of C.S. Lewis in The Most Reluctant Convert invites us to follow our Great Captain through the crack in the wall, and it happened twice for m

I am incredibly grateful to The Tolkien Society and all of its voting members for the outstanding honor of this award for Best Artwork in 2026 for my painting of "The Long Winter, 1158: Gandalf Helps the Hobbits." There are so many gifted Tolkien-inspired artists and illustrators giving their hearts to the depiction of J.R.R. Tolkien's legendarium and I feel it deeply to have received such distinguished notice for my work. My congratulations to all the short-listed finalists

Glory and trumpets, as Sam Gamgee was wont to say! I am so deeply honored to have been chosen to design the 2026 logo for The Tolkien Society's Oxonmoot - an annual event that is cherished around the world. The artwork will be available on the famous Oxonmoot t-shirts attendees love to sport, as well as on other merchandise. You'll be asked if you'd like to order shirts when you register for the event here and there is further information on the event FAQ page here under "Ot

“The one small garden of a free gardener was all his need and due, not a garden swollen to a realm; his own hands to use, not the hands of others to command.” - The Return of the King, Book 6, Chapter 1: The Tower of Cirith Ungol The sense of guarding is philologically rooted in the word "garden" and Sam's humble wishes not only protect him from the self-aggrandizing lies of the Ring, but are met with the happy fairy-tale ending reward of what may be the best garden in all th

The wistful part of my heart is always hoping to see a new Bree arise in our present Age and to go live there, where the Little Folk and Big Folk are good neighbors once more. There would be Men close enough to nature that they take their surnames from it, and Hobbits with enough of the green world all about the community to feel at home. But, while I continue to wait to accidentally find myself the lucky guest at some modern Prancing Pony Inn, I thought it might be encouragi

Is there any setting more inviting of enjoyment than a country walk? Birds and frogs harmonize when noisiness backs away. Wildflowers of infinite delicacy float in a mauve cloud of Yorkshire fog grass. There are fragrant streams, nests in shady concealment, and shafts of light alive with tiny, gilded beings. The observant hobbit authors we know best knew all such things and more. Some disgruntled modern readers are wont to say that hobbit tales contain too much description of

What would late Third-Age hobbits have thought of Yavanna Kementári, and what would she have thought of them? It's harvest time in the Green Hill Country, and you're seeing my thought of how the Little Folk might have imagined this august servant of the One. Of course, they are not actually seeing one of the Valar kneeling amidst their wheat fields, orchards, and smials any more than most of us expect to encounter a personification of Mother Nature in our gardens. Yet, at lea

Do you ever look at place names on J.R.R. Tolkien's beautiful maps and wish you could just stand in them for a minute and see the lay of the land and experience the feeling of being there? Woodhall is just such a spot for me, and I hoped that in painting this landscape, I could share a view with others to help us better picture the place. In my forthcoming book, A Shire Walking-Party , I'll hope to further explore with you the topic of hobbit architectural variations, and her