Ghost Ranch inspired Georgia O'Keeffe's paintings of red cliffs and Cerro Pedernal.
Ghost Ranch is a large retreat and landscape area near Abiquiú in northern New Mexico. O'Keeffe began visiting the region in the 1930s and repeatedly painted its dramatic cliffs, mesas, bones, and distant mountains. The intense colors and clear light provided subjects unlike those available in the cities where she had earlier worked.
Cerro Pedernal, a flat-topped mountain visible from the area, became one of her most recognizable recurring motifs. O'Keeffe painted it from different viewpoints and famously described the mountain as a subject she would keep painting until she had it right.
Ghost Ranch and Abiquiú are related but not interchangeable. O'Keeffe maintained a home and studio in Abiquiú, while Ghost Ranch was the broader landscape retreat where she found many of her desert subjects. Her ashes were later scattered at Ghost Ranch, reinforcing the site's importance in accounts of her life.