Georgia O'Keeffe taught art in Texas from 1916, including at West Texas State Normal College in Canyon.
She moved to Texas after teaching in South Carolina and Virginia. At the Texas school, now known as West Texas A&M University, she taught art and developed a strong connection with the region's broad skies, plains, and distinctive landscape. She also taught at the University of Texas at Austin later in the decade.
O'Keeffe's Texas years were significant because she continued experimenting with abstraction while working as a teacher. She made drawings and paintings from memory and observation, including works inspired by the Palo Duro Canyon area.
Texas is sometimes overshadowed in biographies by New Mexico, where O'Keeffe later found the landscapes most closely associated with her mature career. However, her Texas experience came earlier and helped establish her habit of translating regional environments into simplified, powerful forms.