Georgia O'Keeffe acquired a house at Ghost Ranch in 1940 as her first major New Mexico residence.
Ghost Ranch is a dramatic landscape near Abiquiu, New Mexico, known for red cliffs, broad skies, and multicolored rock formations. O'Keeffe first visited the area in the 1930s and found its terrain especially suited to her close, simplified studies of landscape.
She purchased a house at Ghost Ranch in 1940 and used it as a summer home and studio. The surrounding cliffs and dry country appeared repeatedly in her paintings, including works based on formations she knew as the White Place and the Black Place.
O'Keeffe also maintained a home in the village of Abiquiu, which she acquired later and restored over many years. The two places are therefore related but not interchangeable: Ghost Ranch was her earlier major New Mexico base.