The rain drums on the roof of the interior bar of the Palacio de Avilés hotel. It is summer 2024 and the greenery of the building’s French gardens, visible from there, sheltered, almost evokes those of the Shire, the most peaceful region of Middle Earth, where those hobbits invented by JRR Tolkien, they lived without any worries other than enjoying the smoke rings blown by long pipes or eating the crispy bacon for their second breakfast. Ted Nasmith (Goderich, Canada, 68 years old) is certainly not a hobbit. Rather, he has the appearance of a wise and calm academic, someone similar to the figure that comes to mind when thinking of Tolkien, the author of the lord of the rings, the hobbit y El silmarillion, among other fundamental titles of fantastic literature, to which this classically trained painter has dedicated the best of his successful career.
Nasmith was the big star of the thirteenth edition of the Celsius 232 festival, the largest festival of the fantasy genre in Spain, which owes its name to the conversion in the temperature scale with which Bradbury titled his famous novel, the temperature at which the paper burns: Fahrenheit 451. The artist has illustrated dozens of prints, very much in the biblical style of the classics, on oil, of those wonderful people and places invented by Tolkien. Those that accompany this article were chosen by him; especially, the one that portrays Lúthien, a wonderful character, an elf whose hair grew like Rapunzel’s, who lives an extraordinary fable, like Romeo and Juliet, with Beren, human and her lover, in one of the most unforgettable and still pending to be known by the general public, recounted in El silmarillion, because this collection of stories has not been adapted to film.
Another, which is titled through the forestwas the first time that Nasmith dared to illustrate Tolkien. It was the initial attempt to reflect that lightning bolt that crossed his soul in December 1971, when he read the author’s work for the first time in an edition of the hobbit given by his sister. “It was a school project, when I was 14 or 15 years old. My teacher asked me to define the task for the whole class. I saw the opportunity. I said that the theme would be travel and I tried my first Tolkien illustration, a group of dwarves that emerge from the depths of a forest,” he recalls. That illustration, which accompanies this article, hangs today on the walls of a brother of Nasmith.
Love can’t be faked. The one that emerges, in a reverent whisper, from Nasmith’s lips when talking about Tolkien conveys that type of love, intoxicating and pure, that is only reserved for what one takes to the grave: “He thinks he wrote it after the war ( Tolkien was a combatant in World War II, along with his two sons). I know he suffered from depression, because of the terrible things he witnessed. But, instead of souring his work, or becoming anti-war, the sentiment of what he saw was integrated into Middle-earth. Everything acquires a weight, a death… The glorious days are already the past; and it is time to tell, in a certain way, the end of all things.” It refers, evidently, to Tolkien’s monumental masterpiece, the lord of the ringsone of the 10 best-selling books, according to multiple classifications, in the history of humanity.
Regarding his art, Nasmith sees himself very close to the classical spirit of the great masters of the Renaissance. Curiously, painting on the fantastic imagery has brought him closer to the classics. “Artists of the past were very limited in what they could represent. Because, basically, they were biblical cards paid for by the church. But, suddenly, we have a generation of artists, as good as those of the past and with a very similar training, tremendously freer to choose the subject. I find it especially beautiful that this beautiful and classic art has flourished precisely in the realm of the imaginary,” he comments. The sacred trinity of artists dedicated to Tolkien: John Howe, Alan Lee and himself, have worked on this type of large-format art, indebted to classics such as Michelangelo.
Nasmith has not only dedicated his art to Tolkien. He has also illustrated, with tremendous success, the other great epic fantasy writer of the second half of the 20th century: George RR Martin and his song of ice and fire or, as it is known from its popular television incarnation, game of thrones. But gravity drives him again and again towards Tolkien and especially towards the unfinished collection of fables and mythological remnants that is El silmarillionthe work that inspires the television series produced by Amazon The rings of power. “I feel like doing something large format (a coffee table bookthat type of huge, landscape volume that is styled to show off luxury illustrated works), something that could even expand a huge, horizontal illustration on two pages. That’s what I want to explore in this stretch of my career. As horizontal as possible. And I want to dedicate it to Silmarillion. “I have dozens of sketches that I have not yet transformed into paintings.”
Fear of repeating yourself? Nasmith shares a reflection on what he believes is art and life, the dance between both extremes: “I think art should be about consistency, not believing too much about what you do, but doing it in a totally consistent and coherent as a whole, as if all life and all art were a succession of moments that lead to the same path.” He believes Tolkien’s work is that kind of art. And he adds: “I think it was a book for introverts. “You can’t be a sociable, partying egomaniac and appreciate the subtle romance and latent sadness that permeates this work.”