Building the house for Maimie 1913

Arthur Rackham made "Building the house for Maimie" with ink and watercolor, and it's got this beautifully weird, wintry palette. The lines are delicate but firm, like he’s drawing with a very fine twig in frozen mud. I imagine him hunched over the paper, maybe in a cold studio, carefully building this chaotic scene. The air must have been buzzing with tiny dramas – each character with their own agenda. He's conjuring this world in miniature, and doing it with such love. It's like Rackham is saying, “Let's create a place where logic takes a holiday, and the weird can flourish.” It reminds me that sometimes, the most profound insights come from letting go of control and embracing the strange. It’s all part of the same conversation that painters have been having for centuries. What can be done with line and colour!