Some of you out there collect original science fiction and fantasy art, I know.

(I do. Mostly I buy covers and other illustrations based on my own writings. Not entirely, though. Sometimes I just see a piece of art I love in a gallery or convention art show. I’ve been collecting art since… well, since I looked like that guy in the thumbnail).

If you liked Ted Nasmith’s artwork for the 2011 “Calendar of Ice & Fire,” maybe you’ve dreamed of hanging one of his originals on your own walls.

Well, now’s your chance. Ted’s paintings of the castles of Westeros are going up for sale, along with a lot of his stunning Tolkien art and other work. You can download a PDF of the catalog and peruse the offerings at http://www.adcbooks.co.uk/catalogue-2010-11.pdf

If you like what you see, and want to own your own Nasmith original, remember… he who hesitates is lost. Four of the paintings are already spoken for, I understand — King’s Landing, Oldtown, Dragonstone, Castle Black. ((Two of those by me, myself, and I, heh heh.)) The rest remain available, but who knows for how long?

I should add, for what it’s worth, that original art makes a great investment. Way back around 1974 or so, Frank Kelly Freas offered to sell me the original of his ANALOG cover for my story “Second Kind of Loneliness” for $200. That was my very first cover, and I loved it, so I was sorely tempted. I had only been paid $250 for the story, however, and I was still a VISTA volunteer, just barely making the rent, so I passed, and bought one of the interiors instead. I have rued it ever since. I mean, I do love the B&W I bought, but that cover… last time it changed hands, I think it went for $10,000, and THAT was twenty years ago. I’d be scared to learn what it was worth now.

Actually, though, the money is secondary, of more concern to my eventual heirs than me. I’ll likely never sell the art I’ve collected. What you want to do is buy artwork that you love, that you will enjoy looking at on your wall for the rest of your life. That’s what we do.

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