Georgia O'Keeffe spent much of her later artistic life in New Mexico.
O'Keeffe first visited New Mexico in 1917 and returned repeatedly during the 1920s. The region’s stark adobe buildings, mountains, desert plants, animal bones, and broad skies became defining subjects in her work. She eventually maintained homes in Abiquiú and Ghost Ranch, north of Santa Fe.
New Mexico was not simply a backdrop for O'Keeffe. She described the landscape as something she had to paint in order to understand it, and she developed a visual vocabulary based on its colors and forms. Her New Mexico paintings are often associated with the American Southwest, although she also painted extensively in New York and at Lake George.