Path through a Field of Bluebonnets 

Robert Julian Onderdonk created this landscape using oil paints, a medium that by his time had become completely standardized and industrialized. Note the repetitive marks he makes to evoke the titular bluebonnets. Onderdonk's repeated daubs are not so different from the controlled gestures of a textile loom, the marks of a printing press, or other kinds of mechanized production. Onderdonk was very interested in light, and his methods certainly capture the transient effects of a Texas sunrise or sunset. Yet, the painting also shows how even the most celebrated effects of painterly artistry may have more in common with mechanized labor than we usually think. By calling attention to the work involved in production, we can reconsider the place of painting, and fine art more generally, within the wider field of visual and material culture.