Oooh, art! Let's see.... I first read LotR in Dec. '92 (Yes, I'm young

)
When I was in high school, my friends gave me some trading cards of the Brothers Hildebrandt's illustrations. I was mesmerized by them, and poured over them for hours. I didn't think they were the best ever, but I thought it was so neat that they had painted pictures of scenes that meant so much to
me.
Let's see, what did I like best of theirs....
The Mirror of Galadriel
Gandalf visits Bilbo at Bag End
Éowyn and the Nazgûl
Coronation of Aragorn (hehe, with Greg and Tim as extras

)
I also liked their Goldberry.
I liked their attention to details, such as the runes on the clock in this picture of
Bag End (and a
sketch of the same), or the shields in this meeting with
Ghân-buri-Ghân
But my
favorite painting of theirs was
STAR WARS
Basically, these illustrations were the first I had seen beyond my own idea of what the standards of Rohan and Gondor were, or the
Argonath, or what Éowyn or Galadriel (or their clothes!) looked like. I didn't like everything about their depictions (especially the random faces in the rocks or Old Man Willow), but I did find a lot to like. I was glad to have something to criticize

.
The next year, my art teacher (who was also a Tolkien fan) showed me a calendar that had an illustration by Tolkien on it. [I think he found out I liked the books because I was reading them after school....I never
talked about Tolkien then, even though I liked him a great deal. The give away was that I went around writing in runes and chanting "A Elbereth Gilthoniel"

] Anyway, I remember being enchanted by the drawing of Smaug, but also a bit aware of how....amateur it was. I think I liked it, but then he showed me another picture (by someone else) and I immediately recognized the other artist as "better." But...I can't remember who the other artist was, and I still remember JRRT's Smaug

.
You have to admit,
this is a very good dragon

Though the one on the calendar was
the Death of Smaug. This is probably the time for me to confess being quite familiar with the Rankin/Bass films....and therefore accostomed to
this Smaug...who's not half bad, I might add.
<ducks>
Skipping ahead a few years, I eventually got the brilliant idea to search "Tolkien" on the internet, and found the Rolozo Tolkien gallery. Actually, funny thing, I got too many sites when searching "Tolkien" so I decided that "Tengwar" was a better search term, so that (and "rolozo") were what all my Tolkien-searches were for the next few years. I loved seeing all the pictures there, and I imagine that by now I knew of Lee and Howe. I owned Nasmith's Silmarillion

, and poured over those pictures the same way I had over the Hildebrandt's cards.
Hmmm, let's see, in particular I liked:
Finrod meets Bëor
Lúthien dances at night
And of course the cover (Maglor throws a Silmaril into the Sea) and the backcover (Lúthien and Beren fly over Gondolin), and the cover of the paperback Silmarillion I have now (the Elves awaken at Cuivenen).
Some LotR artwork by him that I like:
The Green Hill Country
The Glittering Caves
Fifth Day after Weathertop
The Grey Havens
Aha! And here is one I had not seen before!
Last sight of Hobbiton
And finally,
Bathing at Crickhollow is just fun!
Smith and the Queen of Faery, which I first saw on TORc (when the image gallery worked...)
I must admit to never being a huge fan of Lee. I understand that he is good, but few of his images moved me. I don't know why...I guess the colors seem washed out. The exception is the House of Tom Bombadil.
That I liked! I do like John Howe, though. The only one that leaps to mind is the picture of Gandalf in the Shire. I have
this map of his, which my boyfriend gave me for Valentine's Day my first year in college (so now I am jumping back a bit, because I did not discover TORc until that fall). Anyway, I also spent many hours staring at that....
Then, later, I discovered Anke Eissmann. My
guess is that someone on TORc linked to her, but I think I remember stumbling across her on
Rolozo. I like her stuff very, very much! And there is so much of it
*swoooons*. It doesn't hurt that she obviously likes Faramir almost as much as I do

. I agree with the angular jaw thing, but I can live with it.
I know it was
Rowanberry's sigs that introduced me to Jenny Dolfen and
Catherine Karina Chmiel. At least, I'm pretty sure! The Death of Fingon was featured on TORc's home page for quite some time, and I may have seen it there first. Either way, I love those pictures qreatly. I saw Dolfen's work first, but I like them both.
Hmmm, highlights....for Chmiel...
Idril
Faramir Kisses Éowyn
Maedhros brrrrr! But oh how I like it.... (really, all her pics of Maedros are great...)
Gandalf and Pippin
Night Chat
...and, her
Comic Strips of young Boromir and Faramir (that are suspiciously like Calvin and Hobbs

)
A recent one by Jenny Dolfen:
Ringbearers
and her very freaky Maedhros:
Kinslayer
And the light-hearted:
Family Portrait
Oh, and her Fingolfin
rocks:
Fingolfin
I was just recently (as in, this week

) introduced to a new artist:
Ivanneth
And cute fluff by her:
Seven Little Feanoreans 