There's a very late painting, shown as the frontispiece to Artist & Illustrator, called The Hills of Morning. It shows the Sun half out of the sea, with hills in the background (its the last painting he did, according to the authors):
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The Hills of Morning is a masterly design. Its many horizontal lines are enlivened by the diagonal rays of the Sun, the tiny flames, & the sinuous vertical of the marine plants, & its colours are smoothly gradated from the coolness of the ocean depths to the warmth of the morning sky. Earth, sea, & sky: here is the whole of Tolkien's creation at once, & the most hoppeful of scenes, under the watch of a single star at upper left, surely Earendil & his Silmaril - serene & powerful. If this was indeed the last picture Tolkien made for his mythology, it was a fitting end.
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The authors interpret it as showing the sun rising out of the depths of the sea, but it can also be interpreted as the Sun sinking into the depths. The undersea world is alive with plants, spirals & snowflake shapes. Two serpents swim in from either side.
If it is the sun sinking into the depths, it probably symbolises the end of his life. If its rising from the depths it symbolises a rebirth, the sun rising into a new world, bringing a new morning.