Ghost Ranch became one of Georgia O’Keeffe’s most famous sources of inspiration.
Ghost Ranch is a dramatic landscape in northern New Mexico, near Abiquiú. Its cliffs, mesas, arroyos, and changing light appeared repeatedly in O’Keeffe’s paintings after she first visited the area in the 1930s. She described the landscape as a place she could not stop painting.
The area was known historically as Piedra Lumbre, or “shining stone,” because of its colorful cliffs. O’Keeffe often reduced the landforms to bold shapes and broad areas of color rather than painting them as conventional topographical views.
Ghost Ranch is sometimes mixed up with Abiquiú, another nearby New Mexico location that also became important to O’Keeffe. She owned a house at Abiquiú, while Ghost Ranch was a landscape and retreat area that supplied many of her most recognizable subjects.