Georgia O’Keeffe created many famous desert paintings in New Mexico.
She first visited New Mexico in 1917 and returned repeatedly before making the state her primary home. Its stark landscapes, adobe architecture, bleached bones, mountains, and intense light became defining subjects in her work.
O’Keeffe lived and worked at Ghost Ranch and later maintained a home and studio in Abiquiú. She also spent time in Santa Fe, where she became closely associated with the region’s modern artistic identity. Her paintings transformed local scenery into simplified, monumental forms.
New Mexico is sometimes confused with Arizona, another southwestern state known for desert scenery. O’Keeffe did travel widely, but New Mexico was the state most strongly linked with her mature landscape paintings and long-term artistic life.