Georgia O'Keeffe first visited New Mexico in 1929, beginning her lasting connection with the region.
O'Keeffe traveled to New Mexico in the summer of 1929 with her friend and fellow artist Rebecca Strand, the wife of photographer Paul Strand. The landscape made a powerful impression, and she returned repeatedly during subsequent summers before eventually making the region her permanent home.
New Mexico supplied subjects that became central to her mature work: adobe buildings, desert bones, crosses, cliffs, roads, and vast skies. She often walked alone through the landscape, selecting forms that could be isolated and transformed into highly concentrated compositions.
Her first visit should not be confused with her later purchase of property. O'Keeffe bought a house at Ghost Ranch in 1940 and acquired the Abiquiú house in 1945. New Mexico thus became important to her before either residence belonged to her.