Station of the Cross No. 11: "Jesus is Nailed to the Cross" c. 1936

This is Geoffrey Holt’s “Station of the Cross No. 11: 'Jesus is Nailed to the Cross'”. There's no date, but Holt lived from 1855 to 1995. I'm immediately drawn to the earthy palette, the way the scene emerges from a wash of browns, reds, and muted greens. You can see the artist is working intuitively, responding to the emerging forms. I bet he was wrestling with the subject, maybe trying to reconcile its historical weight with a personal understanding. The application is quite thin, almost translucent in places, which gives it a raw, immediate feel. Look at the concentrated action of the figures hammering in the nails. I wonder if Holt felt a connection to the physical act of making, a kind of parallel to the labor depicted? Painting is like that, a strange combination of thought, feeling, and raw physicality. It's a conversation, really. Holt is conversing with the history of painting, with his own experiences, and with the viewer too.