My Blue Heaven: Julian Onderdonk at the DMA

If you’ve been in Texas for any amount of time, you’ve seen the inescapable bluebonnet landscape paintings. Many homes feature one, my grandmother’s for example, over the fireplace. Well, the ones at the DMA, in Bluebonnets and Beyond: Julian Onderdonk, American Impressionist, are much better. And unlike our unpredictable season, the DMA assures viewers four months of peaceful gazing and grazing among the state flowers (March 23-July 20). Sarah Eveans and I got a sneak peak today and discovered why Onderdonk was christened “The Bluebonnet Painter.” The exhibit goes beyond bluebonnets (or “Julian’s waterlilies,” as curator William Rudolph dubbed them) to encompass Julian’s father, a painter whose work is featured in a complementary exhibit; the legendary William Merritt Chase; and American landscapes. The showstopper is the periwinkle-hued room filled with 10 years worth of Onderdonk’s bluebonnets. I picked my favorite for you, “Bluebonnets in Texas” (shown), which was a gift of the Marcuses (I knew I had good taste) to the LBJ Library and Museum in Austin. Bathe in its atmospheric azure aura.