Enter the mysterious world….
Oh Arthur Rackham…how much do I wish I could draw like you could! This is an artist that even before I new his name, I loved. From a really early age I have adored Rackham’s gorgeous and fantastic illustrations. I used to copy them slavishly into my own sketchbooks when I was younger, but always ended up being frustrated as mine just simply were not as good as his!
I love the delicate, subtle colours he used and the fine, ethereal figures he drew…even when they were not meant to be fairies, there was always something of the fae about his work!
They have something of the quality of line of another favourite of mine, Aubrey Beardsley. The colours often seem muted, as though they are faded through exposure to the sun, or foxed by age like an antique mirror.
I absolutely love the liveliness of the image above – it engenders a really strong sense of being outside on a windy autumn day, with the leaves crunching underneath your feet…just be careful that it is not the fairy folk that are being crunched! Yikes! The figures in this piece really look as though they are having a wonderful time and even though the palette is muted and quite limited, the piece is full of life.
Mermaids…whether you hold to Hans Christian Anderson’s version or the not quite so friendly creatures featured in Harry Potter, these denizens of the deep are a real inspiration to story tellers throughout the ages. Rackham’s beautiful and sometimes slightly disturbing illustrations leave me slightly short of air…I can’t help felling that mermaids, left to their own devices, want to pull us all down to their level, in every sense!
Even without the actual story, Arthur Rackham’s gorgeous illustrations let the observer create their own tale of mystery, adventure, Arabian Nights or King Arthur…Take your pick. His illustrations are an inspiration and a delight.
lineandthread 