Middle-earth Journeys

Beautiful - it's got a lovely ethereal quality about it! And I love the colours - I'm guessing only three, mixed? I bet you're taking it to Oxonmoot (something else to get framed ). I'm guessing it's after Aragorn and the others have left Rivendell and I want to know more... is the book significant?

I really like it too marbretherese. The colors are beautifully done and you do seem to have captured that moment. Bravo!!

I'm enjoying the technique that you're using of limiting your palette to a few colors. It gives an automatic unity to the picture that is really pleasing. I love the moon and stars throught the arches.

thanks for your kind comments! in fact I used five colours in this: raw sienna, yellow ochre, ultramarine, cerulean blue and alizarin crimson. I also used some salt on Arwen's dress. With hindsight I should have used a different design for the balustrade - it just looks wrong to me - but nevertheless I will be taking it to Oxonmoot

I'll probably display it alongside the full quote from LoTR: "The days are now short. Either our hope cometh, or all hope's end . . . . " The idea behind the painting is that Arwen, having sent Aragorn the banner, can do no more than wait. Elrond, too, can only wait. Even all his wisdom cannot help them now - that's why the book is shut.

There's a nice play on words here, too, with the emphasis on the word "hope", which I'm assuming refers to Aragorn (Estel) in the first part of the quote.

That's a lovely moment to paint - thanks for expanding on that as I couldn't quite pinpoint the quote.

If you could magically redo the balustrade, how would you alter it? There's always something, isn't there? .

Iolanthe wrote: If you could magically redo the balustrade, how would you alter it?

Well, I wouldn't have it looking like a huge pair of eyes, for starters! The painting was inspired by the set of "The Merry Widow" which we went to see at the ENO last year. So I guess I'd aim for something a little more Art Nouveau. And I wouldn't have any of it interfering with Elrond's chin . . .

Merry Widow meets Rivendell.... . The mind boggles. I see what you mean about the 'eyes' though. It's the sort of thing that you only notice when you finish something, isn't it? Sauron might have only one all-seeing eye but Elrond's go two of them.

Oh, you're right! I saw Rings initially, but it does look like a big pair of spectacles. Nonetheless, it is a lovely painting of a poignant moment, and certainly the symbolism of either eyes or Rings would not be misplaced.

Thanks, Lindariel! let's hope the good folk at Oxonmoot think so too . . .

Bombadil's Kitchen Garden

• Frodo ran to the eastern window, and found himself
  looking into a kitchen garden grey with dew...Actually
  his view was screened by a tall line of beans on poles...

© Rabbit Ridge Art™

Very nice Riv. I can imagine Bombadil's garden looking so orderly.

You know, what's so wonderful about these is that one can actually recognize what kinds of plants are growing--I love the little chives! And I'd love to be able to have a bunch of the glass (I think they're called) 'cloches' for my garden! Well done!

This is lovely, Riv! Don't you just know that all Tom had to do was to put up the poles for the beans, give them a word or two, and they just climbed right on up the poles on their own.

great painting, Riv. And I like the idea of Tom "having a word" with the beans, Lindariel! makes me wish my garden worked that way!

Well, marbretherese, now that I think about it, Tom probably sang them a song rather than just giving them a few words, with many a Hey-hol-merry-doll-ring-a-ding-dillo, just for good measure.