Middle-earth Journeys

The Calendar of the Month for March is the 2011 Beyond Bree issue. This one commemorates their 30th anniversary THIS MONTH! Congratulations to a vibrant group. Check it out at:

www.tolkiencalendars.com

Many different illustrators, lots of different takes on what the characters and scenes look like. Kudos to Lotho Sackville-Baggins who edited this one.

Away from The Green Hill Country,

Parm

That's quite a mix of artists! I love the fact that it follows a theme, which is unusual, and I really like the pen and ink work for June. September is really quirky. Do you know the artist, Parm? I can't quite make it out on the credits.

Hi Iolanthe -

September is James Dunning.

Trust things are well with you. Here, the daylight hours are getting longer. But it snowed again today and we had sleet and rain on Monday (and more snow Thursday and Sunday of last week.) At least it's March and winter is on the downside!

Away from The Green Hill Country,

Parm

Wonderful collection. April Radagast seems so swarthy.

Thanks Parm! I see the Tolkien Library has an interesting interview with him .

It's definitely getting spring like here. It's such a relief when the days lengthen and I can paint with more natural light!

The LA Times, through TOR.n, has a nice article about the Maurice Sendak illustration of The Hobbit that never came to be, with an interesting sample:


http://herocomplex.latimes.com/2011/03/ ... have-been/

Thank you Merry. The article was thoroughly enjoyable and leaves one with the "what if" factor of the tale. As for the publisher labeling Sandak's work incorrectly, it seemed destined not to go any further.

Yeah: one can understand the Professor being a little miffed at an illustrator who seemed not to know the difference between hobbits and elves! But it would have been great to see Sendak's rendering of the elves at Woodhall.

such a shame it didn't work out! I wonder what Sendak might have made of LOTR?

Merry wrote:... But it would have been great to see Sendak's rendering of the elves at Woodhall.

Maybe some day it will surface into public view. There's always hope.

Hello to all -

Just posted the Calendar of the Month for April at:

www.tolkiencalendars.com

This one is special to me as I had the great opportunity to work with three very talented illustrators to create it. Hope you enjoy it. Happy Spring to all!

Away from The Green Hill Country,

Parm

I love it, espcially Colin Williams work which we've talked about before here.

There is a wee problem with the links, Parm, which come up with no 'back' facility to return the viewer to the main page. I had to keep clicking the link here to get back in . Usually they do that just fine!

It would have been wonderful to have a Sendak Hobbit. I had no idea he had any connection with it. What a tragedy that blunders and circumstances meant it never happened .

My dear Iolanthe -

As always, it is nice to hear from you. Colin is a dear friend (although we have never met being literally at opposite ends of the Earth.) I love his pen and ink drawings (and have, thanks to him humoring my OCD about these calendars) a copy of every calendar that he has created over the years (going back to 1999.) In 2009, he honored me with an A4 size of his watercolor calendar. He only created two copies of it in that size (and the other is in his collection.) He is a wonder.

And Anke is simply the nicest person you could want to know (and, if I recall correctly, you have met her and may confirm this.) She very graciously returned my 'cold call' emails years ago when I enquired about the German TS calendar that featured her 'Durin's Day' illo. Her works are brilliant and her perspective on the various scenes unique.

All in all, this calendar was quite special because of the artists and the contrast in styles.

As to the 'Back' key, it works fine when I use it on my computer. Can't explain why it was balky for you. Also, when I open any of the illustrations, I get a + sign when I roll my cursor over the illo after opening it. Clicking once enlarges the image. (Not sure why this works on these. Perhaps because I was working from the files that we used on the calendar?) In any case, I hope that it works for you, too.

Hope things are well with you!

Away from The Green Hill Country,

Parm

No troubles using the back key for me today. Thanks so much for adding this lovely calendar. I very much like both artists but enjoyed Catherine Chmiel's colored renderings the best. It was refreshing to see a dark haired Legolas.

Isn't it wierd? It still doesn't work for me - the back button is greyed out, though I can enlarge the pictures to look at them. Normally it works for me just fine! Computers eh?

Anke is a sweetheart - we've met several times at Oxonmoot and had some nice long arty chats. I'm always awed by her work!