Blue Bonnets at Twilight 1922

Robert Julian Onderdonk made this painting, Blue Bonnets at Twilight, with oil on canvas. Look at the way he layers the colors, almost pointillist but more free form. It’s like he’s building the image out of a mosaic of tiny dabs. I love how the blues of the bonnets spill across the foreground, thick and juicy. Then your eye gets drawn into the distance by this dusty path, but Onderdonk doesn’t let you escape the blue, does he? It’s in the sky too, mixing with the grey, holding the whole scene together. And right there, in the middle of all that blue, a little fleck of red. The effect reminds me of Winslow Homer, a bit. Both painters knew how to make color sing. Onderdonk doesn’t give us a clear picture, but a mood, a memory of a place. Painting isn't about capturing something exactly, it's more about feeling it.