This afternoon while strolling through Borders, I found a Tolkien calendar by Alan Lee. I already have a calendar for this year, but I just couldn't pass this one up. Its feels like a sort of visual diary filled with color illustrations surrounded by mystical sepia sketches.

I'm a long time fan of Mr. Lee. Back in the late seventies my older brother introduced me to his illustrations one Christmas, with a book on Faeries by Brian Froud and Alan Lee. Since then I've acquired a few others including his wonderful book Castles, published by McGraw-Hill.

One of my favorite Lee illustrations is called Galadriel's Mirror, from the book entitled Tolkien's World: Paintings of Middle-earth. This book is a collection of paintings by various illustrators. There is something otherworldly about Alan Lee's paintings, to view them is to be held captive by some long, lost magical realm.