Pulling the piece of soft cheese out of his pocket, he squeezed it till the moisture ran out 1920

This curious illustration by Arthur Rackham shows a tense stand-off between a tiny man and a colossal giant. Rackham has used delicate pen lines and watercolor washes, a world away from the thick impasto of my own paintings! The giant is a looming, dark mass of fur, and you can imagine Rackham’s pen dancing nervously as he drew the sinewy fingers. I feel for him because I wonder what Rackham was thinking as he created this confrontation? It is a battle of scale, with the artist a little like the man, going up against something huge. The giant is the challenge, but the man stands his ground. Rackham's approach reminds me of other illustrators and fairytale artists like Edmund Dulac, who were all riffing off folk traditions. I think there is a collective unconsciousness among artists, like a dream we are all trying to remember.