Lakeside Gallery - The Art of Linda and Roger Garland

About

Lakeside Gallery was established in 1989 by Linda and Roger Garland primarily to exhibit their own work, but also to promote book illustration as a serious art form and to make this accessible to a wider audience.
The gallery is open all year round, from 10am - 5:30pm daily.

The Lakeside Gallery has gained a reputation for showing quality artwork and features work by both artists. Current commissioned illustration projects can be seen on exhibition together with private works, limited edition prints, drawings and etchings, all work is for sale.

Permanently on show is The Tolkien Collection, over seventy paintings and drawings commissioned by the original publishers for many J R R Tolkien's books.
The illustrations from tittles include: The Lord of the Rings, The Silmarillion, The Hobbit and Book of Lost Tales. Also on exhibition are the orginal pen and ink drawings from: Farmer Giles of Ham, Smith of Wootton Major and Tom Bombadil together with the book covers.

Linda Garland

Artwork

Born in the North East of Yorkshire Linda showed an aptitude for drawing and painting at an early age with much encouragement from her parents.
She attended Scarborough College of Art which had a fine reputation and took her degree in Fine Art at Wolverhampton College of Art and Design from 1967-1970. She met Roger Garland at the same art college and together developed a secret passion for the PreRaphaelites and the Symbolists visiting major art galleries to stare at 'real art'. Together they began experimenting with the painting techniques of the Old Masters and saw book illustration as a future way of employing their newly found skills.
In 1976 Linda was introduced to fellow illustrator Patrick Woodroffe who gave her contact numbers for illustrators agents in London. As a result Linda and Roger joined Young Artists, one of the top London Agencies and began a long career as freelance illustrators working for a variety of international and U.K. publishing companies.
One of her first commissions were single and double page spreads for A Tolkien Bestiary by David Day published by Mitchell Beazley and the cover art for The Complete Guide to Middle Earth by Robert Foster published by Granada Books. Linda worked mainly in the fantasy and mythological genre during this period of her career.

Roger Garland

Artwork

Born in 1950, Roger grew up in Somerset and attended the Plymouth Art School and the Wolverhampton College of Art and Design. He taught art at Poltair School in Cornwall for ten years and established a career as an illustrator. In 1989, he co-founded Lakeside Gallery, which features a permanent exhibition of Roger's Tolkien-related paintings and drawings. Roger received his first commission from Tolkien's publishers in 1981 and continued to work on the Tolkien titles throughout the 1980s and early 1990s. He provided the cover illustrations for The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, The Silmarillion, Unfinished Tales, and most of The History of Middle-earth series. In addition, he illustrated The Adventures of Tom Bombadil, Farmer Giles of Ham, and Smith of Wootton Major. His artwork was also featured in the 1984 and 1989 official Tolkien calendars. Roger continued to work until illness curtailed his activity. Roger died in 2017 leaving a considerable body of artwork as his legacy.