Illustration for King Mouselet And Prince Youth and The Bold Dwarfs' Adventures 1905

This illustration by Artuš Scheiner feels like it was conjured from a dream. It's all done with what seems to be ink and paper. I'm instantly drawn to the birch trees and the woman who sits between them. There’s a delicate balance here between light and shadow. I imagine Scheiner hunched over a table, carefully building up these tiny marks, probably with a rapidograph, deciding where to add more black and where to leave the paper bare. What was he thinking as he rendered the soft folds of the woman's dress, or the thin, white lines of the bark? Was he trying to capture a mood, or just simply illustrate the story? The more I look, the more I feel like I'm entering into a kind of silent communication with the artist. It’s like we’re both in this imaginary forest, looking for something, or perhaps just trying to get lost. It reminds me a lot of Paula Rego and all those other artists who work within the narrative form. I love art that tells a story, even if I don't know what it is. It reminds me that painting is just another way of thinking about our own lives.