My Life | My Music | My Web Links
I was born in Goderich, Ontario, in the mid-fifties. My father was in the Canadian Air Force, stationed in nearby Clinton. My first memories, though, date from a three-year stay in France, in a town called Longuyon near Marveille, on the German border, where our family lived while my father was stationed there. As a young child, the memories of those times made a strong impression on me as we traveled around the nearby countries during holidays and vacations. Among these special memories are a trip to the famous Miniature Village in The Hague, the Zoo in Rotterdam, Holland, as well as one to Le Parc Marveilleuse, a kind of fairy tale park; the latter is long gone now, I suspect.
Like that of many Canadians, my childhood involved a series of moves, and in the mid-sixties we moved into the Toronto suburb of Don Mills. When I came to enter high school, I was advised to enroll in a commercial art program I hadn’t known existed. Prior to this I’d assumed in general that my habit of drawing constantly was an elaborate hobby at best! During those formative years, I would spend hours drawing pictures, mostly of spaceships or airplanes or battles. Whatever stresses were being endured on the outside were mitigated by drawing and other creative pursuits.
High school training in various art subjects provided me with an excellent learning environment, and I gained much confidence in my abilities. In my third year, on my sister’s recommendation, I discovered J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, her high school friends being much into Tolkien. That became an immediate new focus for me. After graduation, I soon landed a job as an apprentice architectural renderer. I got the job by showing a flair for this type of illustration, though it was not something I’d studied previously. The small studio was run by a designer turned renderer, and I joined him and one other artist. Here I was taught much about my profession, working there for several years before deciding to carry on in a free lance capacity after the studio was dissolved. Though my work, especially in terms of the Tolkien art, has since diversified, I still have a hand in architectural rendering.
Discovering Tolkien, meanwhile, had a very profound effect on me and helped lead to much that I now count most significant in life. It opened up in me a dormant love of lost and misty times, myth and legend. Not since childhood had I felt such a sense of ‘home’, unaware of the effects the intervening years had had in displacing it. I began immediately to draw scenes inspired by this magical, nostalgic realm, becoming absorbed for many hours at a time. Tolkien and the drawings were an important influence, blunting some of the temptations of those years, and the excitement of depicting Middle-earth never seemed to diminish.
With much encouragement from friends and family, paintings of scenes from The Lord of the Rings led to dreams of having my artwork published, especially in one of the newly appearing calendars, but this seemed a distant and possibly unrealistic prospect. Attempts amounted to little, with polite letters of rejection the only result. In time I came across some new Tolkien art which served to galvanize me once more, prompting me to paint new scenes for my own amusement. These years were the mid ’70s to early ’80s.
The Hildebrandts’ three calendars in 1976, ’77, and ’78 particularly excited me to work seriously towards publication, since their work was realistic and detailed. However, I felt I had qualities in my own work that surpassed theirs, and their work helped me define a vision of my own style and interpretations, as did other more traditional illustrators and painters of the past century and a half. I would describe it as a style that echoes the luminist landscapes and Victorian neo-classical styles. I felt these would well complement the grandeur of The Lord of the Rings, and I’d always been attracted to this kind of art.
In time I became a member of The Tolkien Society, having discovered their whereabouts from a notice printed inside an art book of Joan Wyatt Tolkien paintings. With encouragement from them I again approached Tolkien’s publishers. This time they responded positively, offering to include four of my works in the 1987 compilation calendar. Breakthrough at last!
Going from that to other calendars was a shorter step, leading to four works in the ’88 calendar (which were ill-considered watercolours, a naïve attempt to reflect The Hobbit as a children’s book), followed by my first full calendar in 1990, some 14 years after first dreaming of such a possibility.
Other calendars followed, as well as use of my work on the covers of paperback editions of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. In October of ’96, just after returning from the UK, I received a faxed letter from Tolkien’s publishers asking if I was interested in illustrating The Silmarillion. A few months earlier I’d sent a series of colour thumbnails to them after spending a number of months compiling them from pencil sketches I’d assembled from a rereading of the book. These, I hoped, might be used perhaps in an artbook, but happily instead became the basis of negotiations for the first illustrated edition of this largely unsung masterwork.
This new illustrated version of The Silmarillion was published in the fall of ’98, and proved to be another significant step for me in achieving success and recognition as a Tolkien artist. However, The Lord of the Rings remains my ‘first love’, and the commission to paint three successive Tolkien calendars for 2002, ’03 and ’04 has allowed me to return to it.
During this period, in which Tolkien was a central influence, I developed semi-scholarly reading habits, delving into such esoteric subjects as sociology, politics, psychology, and religion, as well as cosmology, ancient history, and anything else I thought might be interesting. And I read novels in various genres, including fantasy, but generally didn’t care for the authors most promoted as the ‘next Tolkien’. I fed my imagination on things and ideas grounded in reality, but which might reflect qualities in Tolkien’s distant realms and add subtext to my interpretations of them. Aside from an interest in ‘what’s going on out there’, a sense of curiosity and wonder is what often moves me the most to inquire into a subject, and tantalizing mysteries of history or nature in particular provide great fascination for me.
Whenever time allows in my very busy life, I love to get away to my province’s north country, having a love of nature which was nurtured in me from the beginning. It provides the kind of escape only a wilderness environment can, both calming and invigorating, always helping me remain centered.
Ted Nasmith — September 2002
Aside from my career as an illustrator, I have a musical side. From adolescence on I’ve been a guitarist and singer, writing many songs (some Tolkien inspired), as well as performing as a tenor in several choirs, both worship and concert oriented. In the ’70s, along with two of my brothers (we are a musical family) I wrote a lot of music. We all of us devoted ourselves to the art of songwriting and musical composition. Some of the efforts of that period even stand the test of time!
The Hidden Door: Songs in the Key of Enchantment |
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My song writing includes social-comment pop-folk compositions, love songs, songs which express my love of Faerie and religious or inspirational songs, such as Christmas carols, choral anthems and hymns. For my first CD I have chosen to focus primarily on Faerie. These are songs most closely associated with my Tolkien artwork, and most have at one time or another been performed at fan gatherings. |
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| Sample tracks from The Hidden Door | |
Where Beauty Dwells |
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To the Sea |
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River Daughter |
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Dying Embers |
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| Order The Hidden Door on CD | |
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North American mail orders: After contacting me through my site here, email@tednasmith.com, please send a check/cheque made out to "Ted Nasmith" for $24.00 [USD or CAD, depending on residence] to me c/o 6070 Hwy 7 East, Markham, ON, L3P 3A9 (Canada). That price includes postage and handling. UK and European orders: Please contact Andrew Compton c/o ADC Books, Crossing Cottage, Todenham Rd., Moreton-in-Marsh, Glos., England GL56 9NJ, www.adcbooks.co.uk . The price is 11.99 GBP. For residents in Central or South America, the Pacific, Australia, New Zealand, Asia and anywhere else Far Away, I leave it to you to decide whom to order from! |
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Beren and Lúthien: A Song Cycle |
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Another project has been the composition of a 20 song cycle, in collaboration with a writer / musician friend, on the story of Beren and Lúthien. Lyrics: Alex Lewis, based on the published text by J.R.R. Tolkien; edited by Ted Nasmith. Music: Ted Nasmith and Alex Lewis. Arrangements and recording by Ted Nasmith. |
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| Sample tracks from Beren and Lúthien | |
Tinúviel |
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Tol-in-Gaurhoth |
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Seek Out the Gate |
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Carcharoth |
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| ADC Books / Andrew Compton — www.adcbooks.co.uk |
| Andrew Compton of ADC Books, Moreton-in-Marsh, Gloucestershire, UK is my agent for promotion and sales of my artwork, and my partner in the creation and distribution of limited edition prints . Mr. Compton accepts all inquiries on my behalf regarding the purchase of originals or prints. This mainly centres on my Tolkien art, but also includes non-Tolkien fantasy, book and journal illustration in other genres, and automotive art. He is also a source for my music CDs. Please check ADC Books online for a catalogue of my artwork and all information regarding upcoming exhibitions and other announcements. Your inquiries are welcome at any time. |
| The Tolkien Society — www.tolkiensociety.org |
| I've been a member of the Tolkien Society since the mid-eighties. The Society is generally considered among the most venerable, tracing its roots to the 1960's when it was felt that a scholarly society was needed to both celebrate Tolkien's genius as well as to offset the more outlandish cult-like readings of his legacy. I can usually be found at the Tolkien Society's annual "Oxonmoot", held in Oxford, England each mid-September. |
| The Mythopoeic Society — www.mythsoc.org |
| I have also been a member of the "MythSoc" since 1987, a U.S.-based literary society devoted to the study and exchange of ideas about Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, The Inklings, and fantasy writing in general. Like the Tolkien Society, it is a group composed of both serious scholars and avid readers of fantasy fiction, and the annual Mythopoeic Conference (venue varies yearly) is geared to satisfy fans at all levels. |
| Beyond Bree — www.cep.unt.edu/bree.html |
| Beyond Bree is a Tolkien-oriented MENSA special interest group who put out a lively monthly newsletter of the same name. Beyond Bree is a good source of general information on matters Tolkien, with letters, often excellent articles, art, poetry, and event listings. |
| John Howe — www.john-howe.com |
| Here is the official showcase of this renowned fellow Tolkien illustrator. John and I have been carving out our respective niche's since our art was first published in the 1987 Tolkien Calendar. Already aquainted as colleagues, John and I got on famously in February 2002 at Toronto's Ad Astra Conference, where we shared Guest Artist standing. |
