Ghost Ranch became closely associated with Georgia O'Keeffe after her visits to New Mexico beginning in 1929.
The dramatic landscape near Abiquiú supplied subjects for many of her paintings, including cliffs, roads, trees, bones, and wide desert skies. O'Keeffe repeatedly returned to the area because its forms and colors offered a powerful alternative to urban New York.
She later acquired property near Abiquiú, but Ghost Ranch and her Abiquiú home are not the same place. Ghost Ranch is a large retreat and education center in northern New Mexico, while the Abiquiú house became her private residence.
O'Keeffe's New Mexico paintings helped establish her public image as an artist deeply connected with the American Southwest. The landscape remained central to her work for decades.