Arthur Wesley Dow’s color-and-composition theories strongly influenced Georgia O'Keeffe at the University of Virginia.
O'Keeffe encountered Dow’s ideas through Alon Bement, who taught at the University of Virginia and had studied with Dow. Dow argued that artists should organize line, color, and tone as expressive elements rather than merely imitate nature.
This approach offered O'Keeffe an alternative to the academic realism she had studied earlier. She began making more experimental abstractions and later credited Dow’s teaching with helping her discover a personal visual language.
Dow himself was an American artist, educator, and author associated with design principles drawn from Japanese art and other traditions. He taught at major institutions, including Teachers College at Columbia University. O'Keeffe did not primarily study directly under him; the University of Virginia connection came through Bement’s teaching.