Which New Mexico landscape inspired Georgia O'Keeffe's 1930 painting Pedernal?

Cerro Pedernal inspired Georgia O'Keeffe's 1930 painting Pedernal.

Cerro Pedernal is a flat-topped mountain in northern New Mexico that became one of O'Keeffe's recurring subjects. It rises from the landscape near Abiquiú and was visible from areas where she lived and worked. O'Keeffe painted and drew the distinctive mesa many times.

The mountain's isolated shape made it especially suitable for her practice of selecting and simplifying natural forms. Rather than treating the landscape as a neutral panorama, she focused on a recognizable feature and explored it through repeated views, colors, and compositions.

O'Keeffe once joked that she had painted the mountain so often that it was “my private mountain.” The nickname is associated with her attachment to the subject, but the painting's title and the mountain's name are different: Pedernal refers to the mountain, while the artwork is titled Pedernal.