Georgia O'Keeffe first visited New Mexico in 1929.
O'Keeffe traveled to New Mexico during the summer of 1929 with her friend Rebecca Strand, wife of photographer Paul Strand. The region immediately became a major source of subject matter. She was drawn to its high-desert light, volcanic formations, adobe architecture, animal bones, and broad, stark landscapes.
Before this trip, O'Keeffe was already known for enlarged flowers, abstract compositions, and paintings associated with Lake George. New Mexico gave her a different visual vocabulary and eventually became the setting most closely associated with her mature career. She returned repeatedly for decades, often spending summers there while maintaining connections to New York.
Her first visit did not mean that she moved there permanently. O'Keeffe continued dividing her time between New York and New Mexico before settling in the Southwest later in life. The state became her artistic home, but her career also included important periods in Texas, New York, and Virginia.