Illustrated Blog Posts

Within the first few words of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit , we are charmed (and appetized!) by the notion that the hole in the ground has...

If you could believe you'd been put here on Earth primarily to appreciate its beauty, I think you'd find time for very little else. Even...

Click image to view The Art of Mercy in Middle-earth: Paintings Inspired by Tolkien's Legendarium by Miriam Ellis. It is with joy and...

Have you ever tried to envision the three separate hobbit branches living in the beautiful Vales of Anduin before their great westward...

The wandering wizard of hobbit legend can cause a glowing tower of smoke to rain biting sparks in a goblin cavern, set pinecones alight...

Waking from the joys of Easter Sunday to the tender grief of Easter Monday, I picked up the nearest little canvas to give myself time to...

Without Bilbo's three books of lore , without Frodo's poignant narrative, without Sam passing these written treasures on to Elanor in...

Late Third Age traveling companions of the hobbits were wont to be surprised by their hardihood. Likewise, if readers only meet the...

Gandalf takes it upon himself to apprentice Frodo to the art of pity, but Bilbo appears to need no schooling in the subject - or is it...

Professor Tolkien has just risen from his desk, for a moment. His pipe is still smoking in a china bowl, and his dip pen rests for a...

The fate of the Free Peoples of Middle-earth famously hinges on the pity of Bilbo and Frodo Baggins. Yet, there is more to explore about...

The autumnal, brooding quiet in which Jane Austen's Persuasion begins feels as if it will never lift. Anne Elliot is fading away like a...

Do you hang seasonal art in your home to keep your dwelling in tune with the round of the year? It's a lovely, mindful custom and perhaps...

It does not sparkle like Pride and Prejudice , thrill like Persuasion , or even produce laughter like Northanger Abbey , but Jane...

If you love the hobbits as I do, you may wish that J.R.R. Tolkien had been granted the time to write a dozen more books about them and...

When Boromir attends the Council of Elrond, he nearly laughs aloud at the spectacle of an aged, tiny being called a hobbit offering to...

I treasure Northanger Abbey for the feeling it gives of a young Jane writing to a young us. The author knows what it is to be free from...

Had all J.R.R. Tolkien's elves been like the Vanyar, The Silmarillion would not exist. Ingwë, High King of all the elves, is satisfied...

When Eärendil is set to sail the skies with a Silmaril on his brow as a sign of hope for Middle-earth, Elrond is left behind to gaze from...

Why do we love Jane Austen with such devotion? Every reader's answers will be unique, but as I researched all known images and...