Date registered: July 2, 2014
Feb 23
““Across the Desert”
Oil on canvas, 13″x21″ wide.
Artist Commentary: I spent Saturday south of Archenland, in the bosom of the Great Desert. The sky crackled with darkling clouds, high-riding, and Brego and I strove ever southward ’til naught but sand dunes roiling stretched as far as eye could see. Once the sun began to sink, we halted, and I set up my easel and began rendering the siennas and cadmiums of the pleated plain. The riot of earthen hues was pocked by pitchy-purple storm clouds through which the sun’s rays peeked.
Then, with Helios hovering just above the horizon, I saw faint figures shimmering in the distance, and ere long a dappled horse hiked the nearest dune, bearing on his back a boy in blue. Another horse and rider followed, but I quickly strove to paint this first pair into my canvas as the last golden lights were quenching.
13″x21″ wide signed and numbered prints – AVAILABLE! Please click here.
13″x21″ original oil painting – $1400.00 US plus shipping.
To purchase this original painting, please click here.
Feb 23
“Riddles in the Dark”
Oil on canvas, 13″x21″ wide.
Artist Commentary: I spent Saturday bewildered among the bunkers, pits, and chasms that riddle the roots of the Misty Mountains. Carved over the eons by floodwaters seeping from miles above, the myriad underground mazes threatened to rend my reason; I was sure I was soon to be sundered forever from the sunlit world.
But just as I began to despair, I heard voices wafting from a tunnel ahead of me. I crept down the shaft, feeling my way, until I came to the edge of an underground lake. There, by some dim phosphorescence of the water itself, I descried two creatures on the shore: one a halfling, and the other of similar size, but of a frightening mien. I kept still and listened, and to my surprise found that they were playing a game of riddles. I did not remain, but, encouraged by this unlooked-for sign of life, I retraced my steps and continued my quest for an exit from this desolate realm.
13″x21″ wide signed and numbered prints – AVAILABLE! Please click here.
13″x21″ original oil painting – $1400.00 US plus shipping.
To purchase this original painting, please click here.
Feb 23
“The Heart of the Mountain”
Oil on canvas, 13″x21″ wide.
Artist Commentary: I spent Saturday walking the wilds of Rhovanion. There, I struck upon the Celduin river flowing southward, and I hiked upstream until I reached the ruins of Dale and the great gaping mouth of Erebor. No fumes could I espy escaping the ancient archway; so, taking heart, I entered the halls of Thráin.
Deep I crept into the living rock, and the air grew ever hotter as I descended. Then, through the darkness, I descried a reddish glow coming from a great stone archway before me; this led onto a high balcony.
There it was that I saw him: the great wyrm Smaug, lying below, asleep upon his mountain of stolen gold and jewels. I held my breath, but the monster slept on.
Daring fate ever further, I set up my easel and sketched the barrel-vaulted hall beneath me. The rainbow colours of the hoard and the thin light shimmering upon the dragon’s scales beguiled me, and even as I finished my work, I felt a desire to find my way down to the hoard and finger the yellow gold. But then I noticed the creature’s eye, which had been closed; it was now fixed upon me.
And I fled, saving only my canvas; I left behind all else that I had brought with me into the ruins of this cursed realm. But I knew that I had been lucky to return at all to the sunlit lands.
13″x21″ wide signed and numbered prints – AVAILABLE! Please click here.
13″x21″ original oil painting – $1600.00 US plus shipping.
To purchase this original painting, please click here.
