Concept Sketches for Local Literary Heritage Project (Tolkien)

As both an East Yorkshire local, and a long time reader of Tolkien, member of the Tolkien Society and Oxenmoot attendee, I was honoured to be asked by East Yorkshire Council (and local historian, Phil Mathison) to generate some very early concepts for a sculpture commemorating Tolkien’s time spent convalescing in East Yorkshire following his service in WWI. The site of the sculpture (Roos, a small village not far from where I grew up) is thought to be particularly important in the forming of imagery in the early legendarium of the writer, namely the dance of Luthien witnessed by Beren.

My role was to generate imagery to use both internally to discuss the project in its early stages, looking at a number of possible materials, and configurations, as well as to create a document listing potential artists/creatives for the commission, plus looking at some of the wider concerns of such a project. The visuals would also later act as a early prompt to be set before those artist approached/commissioned to take on the work, not to follow slavishly, but to encourage the artist to make the project their own.

The final work was taken on by Lincolnshire woodcarving artist, Allen Stichler (www.stichler.co.uk). You can see some of his final work included in the publicity added at the end of the project images, below. And read more about the project here… https://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/tolkien-new-reason-for-fans-of-fantasy-author-to-visit-little-known-parts-of-east-yorkshire-5048552

(NB. I’ll add more after the opening ceremony)