Fields of Bluebonnets 1920

Robert Julian Onderdonk painted this landscape, "Fields of Bluebonnets," with a flurry of brushstrokes, dabbing colour onto the canvas like a pointillist dream. I imagine him out there, squinting in the Texas sun, trying to capture that electric blue. Think about how the light must have shifted as he worked, each stroke a response to a fleeting moment. The man must have been sweltering! It's interesting how the blue extends so far into the horizon, the ground feels like an extension of the sky. It’s a romantic vision, maybe even a little idealized, but there's a raw, visceral energy in those marks, a feeling of being immersed in the landscape. Painters, we're all just trying to find our own way of seeing, our own way of translating the world into something that feels true. Onderdonk found his truth in these fields of blue, and we get to share that vision with him, a century later.