The New Mexico mountain Georgia O'Keeffe painted repeatedly near Ghost Ranch was Cerro Pedernal. The flat-topped mesa became one of her most recognizable Southwestern subjects and appeared in paintings made from different viewpoints.
Cerro Pedernal rises in northern New Mexico near Abiquiu and Ghost Ranch. O'Keeffe valued its distinctive horizontal profile and isolated presence in the landscape. She once remarked that it was her private mountain, although the phrase is commonly repeated in connection with her artistic attachment rather than as an official name.
O'Keeffe's paintings of Pedernal show how she simplified recognizable geography into powerful shapes. She did not make every version a literal topographic record; instead, she altered scale, color, and surrounding space to emphasize the mesa's visual structure. The mountain remains closely associated with her New Mexico work.