Georgia O'Keeffe began her annual summer visits to New Mexico in 1929.
That year marked the start of a pattern that shaped the rest of her artistic career. O'Keeffe traveled to northern New Mexico and spent summers painting its mountains, cliffs, adobe buildings, bones, flowers, and desert forms. She usually returned to New York for part of the year before eventually making New Mexico her permanent home.
O'Keeffe had first visited New Mexico in 1917, so 1929 was not her initial encounter with the region. The distinction matters: 1917 was her first visit, while 1929 began the recurring summer trips that generated a major body of work.
Her friend and photographer Paul Strand helped reinforce her interest in the region, and her husband, Alfred Stieglitz, supported her artistic career in New York. O'Keeffe later purchased property at Ghost Ranch and a house in Abiquiú, turning seasonal travel into permanent residence.