Ghost Ranch became one of Georgia O'Keeffe's most famous sources of landscape imagery.
The retreat lies near Abiquiú in northern New Mexico, below dramatic cliffs and mesas. O'Keeffe began visiting the area in the 1930s and repeatedly painted its large-scale geological forms, including the cliffs known as the Cerro Pedernal region.
Ghost Ranch was not the same place as O'Keeffe's Abiquiú home and studio. She used both locations, but Abiquiú became her permanent residence and working base. Ghost Ranch supplied the expansive desert views and distinctive rock formations that appear throughout her later paintings.
O'Keeffe's depictions transformed local terrain into highly simplified compositions. She often isolated a ridge, bone, road, or mountain so that it became an almost abstract arrangement of color and shape. Her paintings helped make northern New Mexico a defining part of her public image.