Georgia O'Keeffe found major inspiration in New Mexico from 1929 onward.
She first visited New Mexico in the summer of 1929 and returned repeatedly during the following decades. The state's mountains, desert, adobe buildings, animal bones, and intense light became central subjects in her work.
O'Keeffe moved permanently to New Mexico in 1949, three years after Alfred Stieglitz died. She lived in Abiquiú and later spent time at Ghost Ranch, a dramatic landscape north of Santa Fe. Paintings of the region helped establish her distinctive visual identity, although she continued to paint flowers and other subjects as well.
New Mexico is sometimes replaced in casual accounts by Arizona because both states are associated with Southwestern landscapes. O'Keeffe's connection, however, was especially specific: northern New Mexico supplied recurring locations, forms, and colors throughout her mature career.