Georgia O'Keeffe first visited the Ghost Ranch landscape in New Mexico in 1934.
Ghost Ranch lies near Abiquiu in northern New Mexico, an area whose cliffs, mesas, bones, and changing light became central to O'Keeffe’s mature work. She had visited New Mexico earlier, but her first stay at Ghost Ranch came in 1934. She later spent extended periods there and made many paintings based on the surrounding landscape.
The region’s geological formations supplied recurring subjects, including the cliffs known as the Cerro Pedernal area. O'Keeffe’s paintings are not literal maps; she simplified and transformed what she saw into strongly composed images.
Arizona, Colorado, and Utah also contain dramatic desert scenery, which can make the broader Southwest easy to associate with the wrong state. Ghost Ranch itself is specifically in New Mexico, as are several locations connected with O'Keeffe’s later life.