What was Georgia O'Keeffe's first New Mexico subject, according to her later recollections?

Georgia O'Keeffe’s first New Mexico subject, according to her later recollections, was The Plaza at Santa Fe.

O'Keeffe first visited New Mexico in 1917 while traveling from Texas, where she was teaching. She returned repeatedly and eventually made the region central to her artistic life. Her early New Mexico works included architectural and landscape subjects, while later paintings explored bones, flowers, mountains, and desert forms.

The Santa Fe plaza was an important civic and historical space, making it a different kind of subject from the isolated cliffs and ranch landscapes that became more strongly associated with O'Keeffe. Her recollection is useful because it marks the beginning of a long artistic relationship with the region.

O'Keeffe later lived near Abiquiu and spent time at Ghost Ranch. Those places are often named first when discussing her New Mexico work, but they were not the subject she identified as her initial New Mexico painting.