Station of the Cross No. 5: "Jesus is Assisted in Carrying His Cross c. 1936

William Herbert made this watercolor painting, Station of the Cross No. 5, with loose washes of color that give the scene a ghostly appearance. You can almost feel the artist figuring things out as he goes, the painting shifting and emerging through trial and error. I sympathize with Herbert. I wonder what it was like to create this deeply human and spiritual scene, what he might have been thinking when he made it. The paint is thin and translucent, creating an ethereal atmosphere. Look at how he uses color – the somber reds and blues evoke a sense of mourning and solemnity. The bodies lean in all directions. I imagine Herbert working away in his studio, wrestling with the composition, adding layers of paint, and refining the details until he captured the emotional intensity he sought. All artists are in an ongoing conversation, exchanging ideas across time, inspiring one another’s creativity. Painting, like life, embraces ambiguity and uncertainty, allowing for multiple interpretations.