Ghost Ranch inspired Georgia O'Keeffe’s paintings of red cliffs and wide skies. The retreat and geological area lies near Abiquiu in northern New Mexico, where O'Keeffe found recurring subjects for her landscapes.
She began visiting the area in the 1930s and later described the landscape as one of the places she wanted to paint more than any other. The striking cliffs, mesas, and open skies offered the simplified forms and intense colors that became characteristic of her New Mexico work.
O'Keeffe also painted nearby sites such as the Pedernal, a distinctive flat-topped mountain. She made numerous versions of regional landscapes rather than treating each painting as a literal topographic record.
Ghost Ranch is now associated with education, retreat programs, paleontology, and film locations as well as O'Keeffe. It should not be confused with White Sands or other famous New Mexico destinations that were not her principal landscape setting.