Georgia O'Keeffe first visited the Ghost Ranch area in New Mexico.
She traveled to New Mexico in 1929 and became captivated by its intense light, broad horizons, cliffs, bones, and architectural forms. Ghost Ranch, near Abiquiu, provided some of the landscapes and geological shapes that became central to her later work.
O'Keeffe initially spent part of each year in New Mexico while maintaining a life connected to New York. In 1949, three years after Alfred Stieglitz's death, she moved permanently to the state. She lived first at Ghost Ranch and later maintained a home in the village of Abiquiu.
New Mexico is not simply a setting in her biography; it became a major source of subjects and visual language. The area's red and yellow cliffs, dry terrain, and clear skies appear in many paintings. Ghost Ranch should not be confused with Abiquiu: both are closely linked to O'Keeffe, but they are distinct places.