Dawn in the Hills 1922

Robert Julian Onderdonk made "Dawn in the Hills," probably with oil on canvas and a whole lot of feeling. Look at the blues and greens blending into each other; you can almost feel the cool, crisp air of early morning. I wonder what Onderdonk was thinking as he built up those layers of color? Maybe he was trying to capture that fleeting moment when the world wakes up, and everything feels fresh and new. The paint isn't too thick, but you can see the individual strokes, especially in the sky. It’s like he’s coaxing the light into being, one dab at a time. That big tree on the right is so alive; its leaves seem to shimmer in the soft light. Onderdonk's work reminds me of other landscape painters, like the Hudson River School guys, who were all about capturing the grandeur of nature. But there’s something more intimate here, a personal connection to the land. Painting is like a conversation, ideas echoing across time and space, so you know someone out there has been inspired by this.