Georgia O'Keeffe began living part-time in New Mexico in 1929.
She first visited the region that year and spent part of the summer painting there. The stark landscape, cliffs, adobe buildings, bones, and intense light became central subjects in her work. New Mexico eventually became the setting most closely identified with her mature artistic identity.
O'Keeffe continued to divide her time between New York and New Mexico for years. Her relationship with the region was not a brief travel episode: she returned repeatedly, developed favorite locations, and built a large body of paintings based on its forms and atmosphere.
The year 1929 is distinct from the later dates when she acquired New Mexico properties. Her first sustained connection with the state began through that initial 1929 visit, before she made it her permanent home in old age.