Ghost Ranch, near Abiquiu, inspired many Georgia O'Keeffe paintings and became her summer home.
O'Keeffe first visited Ghost Ranch in 1934 and began spending summers there. The area’s exposed cliffs, layered rock, arid valleys, and changing light provided subjects for paintings such as Ranchos Church, Red Hills, and other works based on the surrounding landscape.
Ghost Ranch is in northern New Mexico, roughly northwest of Santa Fe. O'Keeffe’s association with the site is often linked to the dramatic red and yellow formations of the Piedra Lumbre basin. She also collected bones and painted them as isolated forms against the sky.
Ghost Ranch and Abiquiu are related but not interchangeable. Ghost Ranch was her summer retreat, while the Abiquiu house she acquired in 1945 became her principal home in New Mexico. Both places were essential to her later art.