Mystical Realms Newsletter for September, 2008
25 Sep, 2008
2008-9-25 9:46:39 PM UTC
2008-9-25 9:46:39 PM UTC
Posted on behalf of Jef Murray
Greetings!
Welcome to my newsletter for August, 2008! Please feel free to forward this to anyone you think would be interested in keeping up with me. To receive these newsletters regularly, please drop me an email or subscribe online from my website (http://www.JefMurray.com ) or at: http://groups.google.com/group/Mystical_Realms . Notices of events are at the bottom of this email.
Pitchers ============ ===
There are six new paintings posted on my website, including "The Last Homely House", "The Tower of Ecthelion", "Vinyamar", "A Pensive Dragon", "The Watchers of Cirith Ungol", and "The Green Dragon". You can see all of these by clicking: http://userwww.service.emory.edu/~jmu ... jefmurraystudios/new.html
I welcome your thoughts and comments on these new pieces.
Ponderings ============ ==
I am spending September swaddled. Books of illustrations flood the mails each day, and each harbors a priceless jewel: a glance, an expression, a sweep of horizon that will stir my restless mind's eye.
I'm on the scent of a new country, one that I seek to capture in pencil and paint, but one that eludes because of distance, date, dialect. In the basement, the muscadines gurgle, while the stew of images in my mind does likewise…eye of newt, cauldron bubble.
We picked the last of the grapes this week; the thieving squirrels held our fig crop ransom, but it was sufficient for this year's wine…just barely.
It is still hot. No breezes. And though friends returning from the British Isles complain of cold and drizzle in August, these would be welcome here. Even hurricanes would be welcome! Churning tree leaves, bicycles, branches and neighborhood urchins like so much cotton candy…whisked round and round, piled up on paper cones to surprise some gargantuan purchaser at the County Fair.
I'm riding steam engines in my lounge chair. Whipping through barley fields and searching for late season mushrooms. October country looms ahead, and what follows then? Too many scary thoughts…too many finely combed picture perfect postcards of revelers carving jack o' lanterns.
At some point I'll have to come up for air. I'll press faerie dust from eyes, blink, shake my head and wonder what in the world ever got into me.
I'll look `round and see piles of souvenirs scattered on the floor: bits of stormy skies, a magpie, a windmill rising on the horizon. Places I know now because I've traveled there. Places I'll hope to see again someday.
I don't know if everyone paints the way I do, but I wouldn't recommend it as a living. Too dangerous. Too much risk of not coming back at all. The travel connections are hell, and no one has timetables that are up-to-date.
Yep. Better to stick to a 9-to-5 job, methinks. I'll do just that from now on, methinks.
But then, I still need to see about this last little sketch…the one of the little girl on the train platform. Had she found her mum in the crowd before I left? Hmmm. Don't remember….
…Best not to take chances. I settle back down in my chair, reach for pencil, draw out the path to the train station once again, and I'm back in October country….
Prospects ============ =======
- Lorraine and I will be attending the upcoming Tolkien celebration, "A Long-Expected Party" (ALEP) in Kentucky, on September 25th – 28th, 2008. I was also delighted to have been asked to develop some of the images that will be used for the event. You can see one of these on my website at:
http://userwww.service.emory.edu/~jmu ... hes/Sketch_ALEP_logo.html . The official website for ALEP (and registration info) can be found at: http://www.alongexpectedparty.org/ .
Some other ALEP-themed images include:
• The Party Tree - http://userwww.service.emory.edu/~jmu ... lkien/384_Party_tree.html
• Outlandish Folk - http://userwww.service.emory.edu/~jmu ... /390_Outlandish_folk.html
- Although I will not be able to attend this year's Oxonmoot in England (September 25th-28th…see http://www.tolkiensociety.org/oxon/2008/ Info.html ), I will have prints and some original works included in this year's art show (provided courtesy of ADC Books http://www.adcbooks.co.uk ), and may have some images included on badges and/or publications. With luck, a collaborative piece that Becky Hitchin and I worked on will be used as the main logo for the art show.
- Divining Divinity, the first book of verse by Joseph Pearce, which includes my illustrations and cover artwork, was just recently reviewed in Dappled Things. You can read the review by going to: http://www.dappledthings.org/peterpaul08/review01.php .
- ADC Books now has an online catalog featuring Tolkien-themed original paintings and prints from Ted Nasmith, Ruth Lacon, Peter Pracownik, and myself. In addition, you'll find collectible items and rare books featured in the ADC Books catalog. Please take a look at http://www.adcbooks.co.uk .
===
Greetings!
Welcome to my newsletter for August, 2008! Please feel free to forward this to anyone you think would be interested in keeping up with me. To receive these newsletters regularly, please drop me an email or subscribe online from my website (http://www.JefMurray.com ) or at: http://groups.google.com/group/Mystical_Realms . Notices of events are at the bottom of this email.
Pitchers ============ ===
There are six new paintings posted on my website, including "The Last Homely House", "The Tower of Ecthelion", "Vinyamar", "A Pensive Dragon", "The Watchers of Cirith Ungol", and "The Green Dragon". You can see all of these by clicking: http://userwww.service.emory.edu/~jmu ... jefmurraystudios/new.html
I welcome your thoughts and comments on these new pieces.
Ponderings ============ ==
I am spending September swaddled. Books of illustrations flood the mails each day, and each harbors a priceless jewel: a glance, an expression, a sweep of horizon that will stir my restless mind's eye.
I'm on the scent of a new country, one that I seek to capture in pencil and paint, but one that eludes because of distance, date, dialect. In the basement, the muscadines gurgle, while the stew of images in my mind does likewise…eye of newt, cauldron bubble.
We picked the last of the grapes this week; the thieving squirrels held our fig crop ransom, but it was sufficient for this year's wine…just barely.
It is still hot. No breezes. And though friends returning from the British Isles complain of cold and drizzle in August, these would be welcome here. Even hurricanes would be welcome! Churning tree leaves, bicycles, branches and neighborhood urchins like so much cotton candy…whisked round and round, piled up on paper cones to surprise some gargantuan purchaser at the County Fair.
I'm riding steam engines in my lounge chair. Whipping through barley fields and searching for late season mushrooms. October country looms ahead, and what follows then? Too many scary thoughts…too many finely combed picture perfect postcards of revelers carving jack o' lanterns.
At some point I'll have to come up for air. I'll press faerie dust from eyes, blink, shake my head and wonder what in the world ever got into me.
I'll look `round and see piles of souvenirs scattered on the floor: bits of stormy skies, a magpie, a windmill rising on the horizon. Places I know now because I've traveled there. Places I'll hope to see again someday.
I don't know if everyone paints the way I do, but I wouldn't recommend it as a living. Too dangerous. Too much risk of not coming back at all. The travel connections are hell, and no one has timetables that are up-to-date.
Yep. Better to stick to a 9-to-5 job, methinks. I'll do just that from now on, methinks.
But then, I still need to see about this last little sketch…the one of the little girl on the train platform. Had she found her mum in the crowd before I left? Hmmm. Don't remember….
…Best not to take chances. I settle back down in my chair, reach for pencil, draw out the path to the train station once again, and I'm back in October country….
Prospects ============ =======
- Lorraine and I will be attending the upcoming Tolkien celebration, "A Long-Expected Party" (ALEP) in Kentucky, on September 25th – 28th, 2008. I was also delighted to have been asked to develop some of the images that will be used for the event. You can see one of these on my website at:
http://userwww.service.emory.edu/~jmu ... hes/Sketch_ALEP_logo.html . The official website for ALEP (and registration info) can be found at: http://www.alongexpectedparty.org/ .
Some other ALEP-themed images include:
• The Party Tree - http://userwww.service.emory.edu/~jmu ... lkien/384_Party_tree.html
• Outlandish Folk - http://userwww.service.emory.edu/~jmu ... /390_Outlandish_folk.html
- Although I will not be able to attend this year's Oxonmoot in England (September 25th-28th…see http://www.tolkiensociety.org/oxon/2008/ Info.html ), I will have prints and some original works included in this year's art show (provided courtesy of ADC Books http://www.adcbooks.co.uk ), and may have some images included on badges and/or publications. With luck, a collaborative piece that Becky Hitchin and I worked on will be used as the main logo for the art show.
- Divining Divinity, the first book of verse by Joseph Pearce, which includes my illustrations and cover artwork, was just recently reviewed in Dappled Things. You can read the review by going to: http://www.dappledthings.org/peterpaul08/review01.php .
- ADC Books now has an online catalog featuring Tolkien-themed original paintings and prints from Ted Nasmith, Ruth Lacon, Peter Pracownik, and myself. In addition, you'll find collectible items and rare books featured in the ADC Books catalog. Please take a look at http://www.adcbooks.co.uk .
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