Georgia O'Keeffe began her first extended visits to New Mexico in 1929.
O'Keeffe traveled to New Mexico during the summer of 1929, beginning a long artistic relationship with the region. She was drawn to its stark landscapes, adobe architecture, mountains, bones, and intense light. These subjects became central to her work and eventually influenced her decision to spend much of her time in the Southwest.
The 1929 trip did not mean that she immediately abandoned New York. For years she divided her time between New York and New Mexico, continuing to exhibit and work in both places. Her Southwestern paintings developed across repeated visits rather than from a single journey.
This date is often confused with later milestones. O'Keeffe purchased a house in Abiquiú in 1945 and moved there permanently in 1949, while her New Mexico visits began two decades earlier. Her best-known New Mexico subjects therefore belong to a sustained period of observation and travel, not merely to her later permanent residence.