Bluebonnet Field 1912

Robert Julian Onderdonk, sometime in the early 20th century, made this beautiful painting of a bluebonnet field. It’s a super interesting painting because it’s both kind of controlled, but also has this really loose, expressive quality. Check out the way the paint is applied. It's not trying to trick you into thinking it's anything but paint. It revels in its own materiality, with thick impasto strokes, especially in the foreground. Look at how Onderdonk created the texture of the flowers themselves. They almost seem to vibrate, the color shifting from darker indigos to lighter, almost periwinkle blues. The path winding through the field is rendered with a more subdued palette. It offers a visual respite from the intensity of the bluebonnets. It’s kind of like he’s saying, “Hey, art is a path, not a destination.” Onderdonk’s work reminds me a bit of Van Gogh, particularly in the way he uses color and brushwork to convey emotion. But where Van Gogh is all about the drama, Onderdonk has this quiet, subtle way of drawing you in.