New Mexico became Georgia O'Keeffe's longtime home and artistic setting.
O'Keeffe first visited New Mexico in 1917 and returned regularly after 1929. Its desert landscapes, adobe buildings, bones, flowers, and intense light became central subjects in her work.
She moved permanently to New Mexico in 1949, after Alfred Stieglitz's death, and divided her time between Abiquiú and Ghost Ranch. The region was not merely a backdrop: its forms and colors shaped the visual language for which she became famous.
O'Keeffe's New Mexico paintings are often associated with Santa Fe, but her homes were in Abiquiú and at Ghost Ranch, north of Santa Fe. Arizona, Colorado, and Utah also have dramatic southwestern scenery, but they were not her principal lifelong base.