Thus the people were free for all time from the fear of poisonous reptiles 1909

Charles Robinson made this illustration, ‘Thus the people were free for all time from the fear of poisonous reptiles’ with watercolor, and it's interesting how the light washes and flowing lines create a sense of both calmness and kind of fantastical activity. I'm drawn to the way the watercolor moves, how it pools and blends, especially in the monk's robes. It’s a dance of pigment and water, and that feels pretty alive. Look at the way Robinson uses a darker brown to define the folds, but then lets the color fade out, giving the fabric a soft, almost ethereal quality. You can almost feel the texture of the cloth and the movement of the air around it. This approach reminds me a bit of Arthur Rackham, who also embraced the fluidity and unpredictability of watercolor to create these images that are both beautiful and a little unsettling. Both artists teach us to appreciate art's ambiguities. There's no one right way to feel about this image, and that's something to celebrate.