A Cloudy Day, Bluebonnets near San Antonio, Texas 1918

Robert Julian Onderdonk made this landscape painting on a cloudy day, probably en plein air, capturing a field of bluebonnets near San Antonio, Texas. The dominant blues and greens are like an embrace. I can imagine Onderdonk, squinting against the Texan sun, trying to capture the shimmering light. Maybe he was thinking about Monet, about the way light can transform a scene, how the smallest dab of paint can evoke the vastness of the sky. There’s a tension in the painting, a push and pull between representation and abstraction. Look at the way he applies the paint, thick in some areas, thin in others. Those blues are not just blues, but feelings, memories, echoes of other paintings he's seen and loved. What could you make, using those blues? It seems as if he and Monet and all painters are in an ongoing conversation, inspiring one another across time.