Blue Bonnets at Twilight 1922

Robert Julian Onderdonk made "Blue Bonnets at Twilight" with oil paint on canvas, and the whole thing is slathered in blues and greens that are so thick you could dive right in. I can only imagine what it was like to stand in that field, the cool twilight air buzzing with the sounds of crickets and the sweet smell of wildflowers filling your lungs. It looks like he mixed those big juicy strokes of color right on the canvas to create a kind of shimmering effect. Look at how the light bounces off the bluebonnets in the foreground, almost as if they're glowing from within. He's doing something similar to what Monet was up to with his Impressionist paintings. It's like Onderdonk is trying to capture the feeling of being in that place, not just what it looks like. Painting, for me, is about trying to figure something out that I can't put into words any other way. I feel like Onderdonk was doing the same thing here. He saw something beautiful and important in this field of bluebonnets, and he just had to get it down on canvas.