LIFE
d e e p i n t h e art
The History of Watercolor in Texas by Betty Bielser
I
t’s a stretch, but if one thinks about the first watercolor paintings in Texas, one may consider it to be the cave art (petroglyphs) along the cliff walls of the Rio Grande River in Val Verde County and other parts of Texas; it is estimated this art dates between 3000 to 1000 BC, with the last done in the 1880s. Imagine the first Paleolithic human accidently sticks his hand in red mud, slaps it against the cliff wall, leaving his handprint. Hence, the first watercolor…ground minerals mixed with water. Watercolor medium slipped quietly into Texas under the wings of several well-known artists in the early 19th century. The dried cakes of premixed watercolor were a “convenient” art form easily carried on location to paint studies of Texas scenery. These studies would be brought back to the 48
AUTHENTIC TEXAS
artists’ studios to be used as a reference to paint their oil masterpieces. Today, some of these studies are valuable jewels. That was especially true of San Antonio native Julian Onderdonk (1882-1922), who is known as the best landscape artist in Texas and the father of bluebonnet paintings. Some were painted on location in oil, but most of his masterpieces were oils painted in his studio from watercolor images. His studio, which was in a log cabin, now resides on the grounds of the Witte Museum. Today those watercolor sketches, along with a few of Onderdonk’s watercolor paintings are in collections. He died at the peak of his success of acute appendicitis. A young Georgia O’Keeffe moved from New York City to live in Canyon, Texas, where she was the chair of the art
