Middle-earth Journeys

Alan Lee fans, I just saw that Mr. Lee himself will join in an on-line conversation at the Hall of Fire at TOR.n. Can't remember the date . . .

This is a LINK to the item Merry is referring to at TORn. The date Alan Lee will be joining in the Hall of Fire chat is November 5.

Even if you aren't interested in participating, you can read transcripts of the conversation after the fact.

Now, back to the topic of Tolkien Art ...

This is bang on topic . Thanks for that, it sounds really interesting and he will be talking about his new book too.

Aflon, I really like the Catherine Karina Chmiel illustration. I think that's my Aragorn too. Anyone else got any Aragorn favourites? Not that I'm biased towards a certain Ranger or anything .

Alan Lee's US Tour News

Alan Lee fans will be pleased to know that he will be keeping a travel blog as he tours the US promoting The Lord of the Rings Sketchbook. You can find his first entry, courtesy of TheOneRing.net, here:

Alan Lee's Travel Blog

Oh! Cries! He is going to be in Austin on the 26th. I am going to be in class!

Thanks for posting that Iolanthe, what a great find!

elizabeth~

Oh! Cries! He is going to be in Austin on the 26th. I am going to be in class

this might be a good time to get *sick*...I only wish he was coming to my area this time w/ his new book. Met him early last year, wonderful man & wonderful artist!

Iolanthe wrote:I'd love to know who everone's favourite Tolkien artists are and why - it's such a rich area. I think you've all guessed mine .

I think so, yes. Mine too.
RE: Pauline Baynes: I read lots of translated English children's books as a child, Nesbith etc and so many were illustrated by her. Just love her illustrations, especially Narnia. Had no idea she had done LOTR work! I do love her, but for me LOTR has always been a book for teenagers and adults (except for those first chapters that I sort of skipped the first times, too much like The Hobbit), her illustrations would give the wrong feeling for me.
Alan Lee on the other hand is perfect, never fantasy, more like history in a dreamlike world, remote, but still not strange. Or sth , I've tried to explain so many times, but never am able, to say what Alan Lee's LOTR illustrations and his work on the movies mean to me.

Iolanthe wrote:This will be the address of Alan Lee's new website:

http://www.alan-lee.com

There is one page up with the hopeful word 'Soon...' . How soon ?

As soon as dear Alan becomes a little more computer savvy, I suppose. No disrespect meant, he's a wonderful artist and a very gentle soul, but he's an artist and not that used to the world of internet yet. I had to tell him what LOL means.
Hope he gets the site going when he's back from his US book tour. I would so much like to meet him and talk with him sometime, but I fear he's not going to this part of the world. Maybe I should ask him to, there is so much inspiration to be drawn from nature and historic sights in Scandinavia.
I'm really looking forward to a website, hopefully being able to read more about his ideas and inspiration for his art and see sketches.
Talking about sketches, it was payday yesterday and I luckily got one more month of work, so I naturally intend to spend some money on books. I thought I had seen the Alan Lee sketchbook on Play.com, but now it's not there, so it seems I have to buy it elsewhere, probably Amazon UK.
I too was a little puzzled by the two editions, UK and US. They seem to be essentially the same, look the same, have the same contents, but the US version is more expensive in Europe. So I'll order the UK version. Plus a variety of other books, to lower the shipping costs per book. Like Faeries, for example. It's difficult to be an Alan Lee fan, not having his books, except for LOTR illustrations and Mabinogion. I mean, how discuss and judge something you haven't seen.

I think you hit the nail on the head, Estel: Lee's artistic style is perfect for LOTR because it does have the sense of reality with just a little fantasy on the top. One has the sense that he didn't make anything up, although, of course, that can't be true!

Speaking of which: Did any of our Denver members get the chance to see Mr. Lee this week?

I did manage to get to the Tattered Cover Bookstore and meet Alan Lee this week and have him sign his new book for me. What a brilliant Tolkien mind he is. He reads a paragraph in the book and is able to draw the vision Tolkien created. Positively brilliant artist, and a wonderful evening.

And...such a truly humble and nice man!!

Oh, how wonderful! So was it just a booksigning, or did he give a talk as well?

He spoke about Tolkien, his love of the work and of course working with Peter Jackson and the films. What a nice...nice man!!

Wow lucky you. That is fantastic. Had you not met him before?

There is a great interview/chat(??) with Alan Lee on AICN. Here is the link:


Quint interviews artist Alan Lee about his LORD OF THE RINGS SKETCHBOOK!
© Ain't it Cool News

Thanks Chrissiejane - that's a great interview. He's obviously caught up with the computer stuff if he did the layout for his own book . Nice to know he has some Greek Mythology plans in the pipe-line. That's really something else to look forward too .

Riv - it's great you had a chance to hear him speak. He really is lovely to listen to with his gentle sense of humour.

It was really wonderful. Too short. What a gentle man.