PLANT CURATOR
botanical artistry | imagery | creativity
  • Art & Design
  • Photography
  • Culture
  • Places
  • Free Art
  • Books
Home » Art & Design » Onderdonk’s blue plant landscapes

Onderdonk’s blue plant landscapes

November 13, 2014

Onderdonk blue bonnetsBluebonnets at Twilight, near San Antonio – Robert Julian Onderdonk, 1919-1920

True blue plants have a natural allure due to their rarity. Landscapes dominated by these blue plants are even rarer, yet because we have Bluebells in the UK, are also somewhat familiar. There are relatively few plants that bear truly blue flowers – Gentian, Lupin, Monkshood, Grape hyacinth and African lily are a few that come to mind – with more found in the purple and lavender areas of the spectrum. It’s still a colour range that exists far less in nature than others – Professor David Lee, in his book Nature’s Palette: This Science of Plant Colour, puts it at around 10% of all flowering plants.

Well-known paintings of predominately blue plant landscapes also seem elusive. You will find numerous artworks with blue hints, tints or hues, but not many renderings of the real thing. Artist Robert Julian Onderdonk (1882 – 1922) almost single-handedly makes up for it. He painted blue flower after blue flower, creating a whole series of impressionistic artworks depicting the Texas state flower, the Bluebonnet, en masse. The Bluebonnet is a collective name to refer to a number of species of lupin found in South West America, with the Texas Bluebonnet (Lupinus texensis), endemic to the region, perhaps the most well-known.

There’s something compelling about an artist who paints the same thing over and over again, giving due attention to the same but variable subject – which plants most definitely are. Claude Monet’s Water Lilies series of 250ish artworks painted in his garden at Giverny is perhaps the most well-known example of such dedication.

Bluebonnets can be found all across Texas, with different species concentrations in different areas, but to experience the beauty of Onderdonk’s landscape head for San Antonio and the Highland Lakes region just west of Austin between late February and May. For more detailed information and blooming times see the Facebook page Texas Bluebonnet Sightings.

Bluebonnet sceneBluebonnet Scene, 1921

blue plant landscapeField of Texas Bluebonnets and Prickly Pear Cacti

Blue bonnetsPath Through a Field of Bluebonnets

Blue bonnetsFields of Bluebonnets, 1920

Blue bonnetsField of bluebonnets

Blue bonnetsBluebonnet Field Early Morning San Antonio, Texas, 1914

Blue bonnetsField of bluebonnets under cloudy sky

Blue bonnetsBluebonnet Field, 1912

Share this:

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Google+ (Opens in new window)

Like this:

Like Loading...

Related

Share

Related Posts

  • Stained glass plants
    Stained glass plantsJune 24, 2015
  • Plant in the room: White lily
    Plant in the room: White lilyMay 18, 2015
  • 20 minutes in South Asia with a smart phone
    20 minutes in South Asia with a smart phoneApril 24, 2015

Popular Posts

  • 88 free vintage medicinal plant illlustrations
    88 free vintage medicinal plant illlustrationsApril 21, 2014
  • Species list for La Primavera anyone?
    Species list for La Primavera anyone?March 23, 2014
  • 20 tree paintings by women artists
    20 tree paintings by women artistsMay 9, 2014
← Plant in the room: Narcissus
Painting plants from within a floral kingdom →
Follow Us on FacebookFollow Us on TwitterFollow Us on PinterestFollow Us on EmailFollow Us on rss

Subscribe

Get Plant Curator direct to your inbox

Popular Posts

  • 88 free vintage medicinal plant illlustrations
    88 free vintage medicinal plan... April 21, 2014
  • Species list for La Primavera anyone?
    Species list for La Primavera ... March 23, 2014
  • Species list for Millais’ Ophelia anyone?
    Species list for Millais’... April 15, 2014
  • The ultimate Californian deserts in bloom photographic road trip
    The ultimate Californian deser... March 5, 2014
  • Talking vegetable cartoons of Berger & Wyse
    Talking vegetable cartoons of ... April 1, 2014
  • Botticelli’s flowers to Valentino’s dresses via Celia Birtwell
    Botticelli’s flowers to ... January 19, 2015
  • Flower collages of Ted Feighan aka Monster Rally
    Flower collages of Ted Feighan... March 6, 2014
  • Plant in the Room: Magnolia
    Plant in the Room: Magnolia November 24, 2014
  • Plant in the room: Narcissus
    Plant in the room: Narcissus November 11, 2014
  • What species is Monet’s Bodmer Oak?
    What species is Monet’s ... September 23, 2014
  • The Top 5 Identification Guides for UK Wild Plant Photographers
    The Top 5 Identification Guide... July 14, 2014
  • Old cacti keep the wow factor
    Old cacti keep the wow factor May 2, 2014
  • Movies featuring A-list plants
    Movies featuring A-list plants February 20, 2014
  • The Dave Hill effect
    The Dave Hill effect February 9, 2014
  • Fake flowers tell the truth
    Fake flowers tell the truth February 7, 2014

About

Plant Curator selectively collects creations to build a digital athenaeum of plant beauty and application in the arts. Designers that work in nature or plant-related fields will find inspiration for design and content here. In this way we help botanical creatives learn from other botanical creatives.
Read More

Area of interest

Links

  • Submit to Plant Curator
  • Directory

Email

Your message was successfully sent. Thank You!

© 2017 plantcurator.com. All Rights Reserved
%d bloggers like this: