The Art of M. W. Kaluta

In 1994 M. W. Kaluta created artworks for the Tolkien stories of the Lord of the Rings. Published by George Allen & Unwin, Ltd the illustrations cover famous as well as quiet bits of the story. For example we have Merry and Pippen at the Entmoot and Éowyn and the Witch-King of Angmar. Then there are the quiet moments that normally are not covered in Tolkien inspired art like Legolas drawing his gifted bow from Galadrial or one of my personal favorites Meriadoc the Magnificent and the Children of Samwise Hamfast. I really enjoy his artwork and especially this calendar. To see the calendar images in their entirety visit his website at...

The Art of M.W. Kaluta

The Barrows-Down

The Barrow-Down was born in 1998 before the craze of New Line Cinema's Lord of the Rings movies. It has since grown into a huge site with many pages. There are many games, references and wonderful article links, as well as an active message forum too. So take some time and browse through their vast site of knowledge.

The Barrow-Downs

Beyond Bree

Beyond Bree is a Tolkien special interest group of American Mensa. This online site is the leaping off site for their monthly newsletter for Mensan members as well as non-members. Most all links to Beyond Bree's flyer, author guidelines and more information is available to download as attachments. I've not seen the newsletter so really don't have an opinion of it. But curious folk can download all the information and decide for themselves.

Beyond Bree

Jerry Vanderstelt

Recently I was introduced to Jerry Vanderstelt's work. This air brush artist has taken the medium to a new level. Jerry is contracted by New Line/Warner Bros. to create collectibles for the Lord of the Ring's movies. And wow does he do a magnificent job bringing the characters to life. I highly recommend this man's work and you can visit his web site to view terrific videos and find buying information too.

Visit Vanderstelt Studio.com and enjoy!

Tolkien Art on DeviantART

There are many good artists out there who's passion is creating art inspired by Tolkien's work. And the reality is you will probably only see a small fraction of these artists make money or have the wide spread attention as their more 'famous' counterparts such as Alan Lee or John Howe receive.

DeviantART is a member driven site for artists of different mediums. On this site is one devoted to Tolkien. There are over 1000 artists belonging to this club and more are welcome to join them. It's quite a magnificent collection of work with diverse styles and all aspect of Tolkein's myths represented.

If you enjoy browsing through Tolkien inspired art from literally around the world don't miss the Tolkien Fan Community at DeviantART.

Peter Pracownnik

Peter Pracownik is a citizen of Britain and has been quite successful as a fantasy artist since the late 1980's. His work includes a t-shirt and poster design for the Greatfull Dead in 1993, a designer of tarot cards for various companies and various other poster projects. He also is an artist with a great deal of knowledge of mythology and lore. Peter currently runs a gallery with artist Nicola Clare Lyndon in Tintagel called Another Green World.

Peter also is an artist who paints vibrant images of Tolkien's world. You can find his website The Enchanted World of Peter Pracownik has various images of his work. View the link to the Print Bar and you'll see the categories of all his work, Tolkien among them.

Enjoy!

The Council of Elrond

The Council of Elrond or as they like to be known as 'The Original' Council of Elrond is a massive site. There are pages for the New Line Cinema movies, Elrond's Library has artists, Tolkien's poetry, summeries, a book forum and 'book club'. There is a Tolkien section with biography, artwork, articles to name a few topics.

There is a humor section, media section, fonts and you can even find recipes. I have not begun to dive into CoE but I can say once you go digging it is easy to find your way home again. It's huge, informative and a delight.

The Tolkien Trail

The Tolkien Trail is a unique site in that it's pages uses original artwork. There are games to play, a message board, fan writings and they have a Cafe Press marketplace to buy Entmoot t-shirts. There are MP3's of spoken word poetry, parodies of songs and more. One of my favorite pages is Lothlorien. Here you will find original art by fans. My favorite by far is Juan Albuerne of Spain sculptures.

For a different feel of Tolkien visit The Tolkien Trail.

Ambar Eldaron

Ambar Eldaron is a French Tolkien Site. There are many pages to explore at Ambar Eldaron. The easiest way to get around is the site map. There you can navigate through transcribed elvish texts, links to Elvish/French dictionaries, game pages, merchandise for sale, some art work, a message forum and more. This site primarily delves into the Elvish languages and includes interviews of some who have written books on the subject.

There is an English section (you'll find it easily on the bottom of the site map) with lot's of goodies. It's worth the exploration.

Ambar Eldaron

Lakeside Gallery - Roger and Linda Garland

Middle-earth
@Roger Garland

Lakeside Gallery is the gallery owned by artists Roger and Linda Garland. Their artwork leans towards subjects of mythology and fantasy including Tolkien.

Roger's work is fresh and clean. There are subjects painted from The Silmarillion such as Ulmo, Lord of the Waters and Luthien in the Woods of Neldoreth to name a few of my personal favorites.

If you enjoy art inspired by Tolkien this is a must see.

Lakeside Gallery

Rolozo Tolkien

Rolozo Tolkien (hosted by TheOneRing.net) created by Ryan Eric Lovett of California has collected quite a few images, drawings and paintings of Tolkien images on the web. The artists range in the most successful to the amateur and in itself is pretty amazing.

The gallery is quite easy to follow. It is sectioned out easily with topics ranging from book illustrations to Tolkien calendars. There is even one page for images of Tolkien himself.

It is sad however that no images have been added since 2006. But when you think of the work involved to keep such a huge site up to date it is understandable. The site is truly a gem.

Rolozo Tolkien

The Tolkienion

The Tolkienion is one of the top notch Tolkien sites out there and was created in 2001 by Steven White. It is well organized and easy on the eyes. A small image page provides links to several major artists work including the site owner Steven White himself.

Also included are a text page which includes a terrific assortment of written works by Tolkien, a lexicon and a HUGE links page.

Have fun at the The Tolkienion.

The Last Homely House

@ Alan Lee

The Last Homely House is a small site that includes an illustrations page solely of Rivendell. Not much else is Tolkien related other than a few passages from the Lord of the Rings books on the bottom of the illustrations page.

The site owner Aaron Fuegi does however have links to the artists websites on the Rivendell page. And that is worth a look.

The Last Homely House

The Tolkien Forum

The Tolkien Forum has been around for quite some time. Their vast forums cover every aspect of Middle-earth and than some. Other than the literary discussions there are forums for members art and writing, language discussions, articles written by the members in academic fashion, gaming and of course movie talk.

I said vast and that is the truth. It's large but not unmanageable and many to participate with.

The Tolkien Forum

Middle-earth Tours

Middle-earth Tours is hosted by TheOneRing.net and created by their member Kyriel. It's a lovely tour that includes images both by artists and the New Line Cinemas movies of LoTR. Included are a timeline from The Silmarillion. The images are collect from another hosted site entitled Rolozo Tolkien. It's not certain if this site has been worked on recently. Like Rolozo Tolkien I believe once the hype of New Lines LoTR movies faded so did the interest to improve on this site.

I did add it here however, because of the unique way they have covered the timeline and subjects of Tolkien's Middle-earth stories.

The One Ring.net

TheOneRing.net was founded in 1999 by Xoanon and Tehanu. Primarily driven for news regarding Peter Jackson/New Line Cinemas's LoTR movies they hunted for any pre-production news they could find. This site truly is one created by fans for fans and you can read about their history here.

This site has grown to an immense size even out growing it's original one which you can still view in their archive.

Besides current news on the Hobbit movie in pre-production and any news to do with Tolkien including gaming, the site also holds a message forum, Barlimans Chat, polls, a scrapbook from events, a page just for merchandise, events and much more.

It is vast, fresh and fun.

John Howe

@John Howe
Hobbiton

John Howe, along with several other artists, is a master at his craft. Having been published in books, calendars and what ever else you can find Tolkien related images he is one of the most recognized artists out there.

His website is teaming with information, images with explanations and blog like entries to linger in. Even his links page is a wealth of information. And last but not least the man even as a forum on his site.

To visualize Tolkien's world remember John Howe.

Middle-earth Journeys.com

Middle-earth Journeys.com is an open forum. MeJ, as it is known to its' members, is a site dedicated to Tolkien related discussions. The literature is the focus however, there is much to offer in the form of the arts, scholarly topics as well as members writings on Tolkien and their adventures to Tolkien events. There is also fun subjects to challenge your Middle-earth knowledge and occasionally contests too.

A few of it's other attributes are the Great Years Calendar, The Hobbit Calendar (still in progress)and The Tolkien Research Library.

A small Gallery of members artwork is also available to view.

I highly recommend this small but dedicated website called Middle-earth Journey.com

Sue Wookey

@Sue Wookey

Every so often you find art, really good art work that is from a budding artists just on the cusp of something great. Sue Wookey is just that golden nugget of discovery. I've known her for several years on-line and has just recently this year retired early to pursue her dream of becoming a paid artist.

For years she's been a J.R.R. Tolkien fan and now has taken her talent and transformed the tales we know into vibrant reality.

"Art is a strange thing. Anything can be a subject but only certain things will truly inspire you and draw out real creativity. For me, at the moment, there are several things that make me want to grab my paints: the mysterious prehistory of Britain, ancient multilayered symbols which seem to occur throughout the world (like the maze and the World Tree), and the works of JRR Tolkien."

Having illustrated one cover of the Tolkien Society's journal Amon Hen, another will be published with the above illustration in March 2009.

Her debut exhibition will be held at the Purple Poppy Gallery located in Ampthill, Bedford from June 18th till June 21st, 2009.

To see more of Sue's work visit her blog Gallery Hill Art or her website of the same name Gallery Hill Art.

Anke Eissman

@Anke Eissmann

Every so often I come across artists sites that gets me excited about art all over again. Although I've known about this artist for sometime I find when I rediscover her work it's like, well Christmas.

She's an illustrator and graphic designer. Her medium is primarily watercolors. I find her paintings both tranquil and soft even when illustrating the most serious of topics.

If you enjoy fantasy art especially Tolkien take a look and judge for yourself.

Anke Eissmann