Georgia O'Keeffe repeatedly painted Cerro Pedernal, a flat-topped mountain in northern New Mexico. She famously described the distinctive mesa as her mountain and used it as a recurring subject from the landscape around Abiquiú.
Cerro Pedernal rises near the Jemez Mountains and has a recognizable horizontal summit. O'Keeffe simplified its shape into strong bands of earth, sky, and shadow, sometimes showing the mountain from a distance and sometimes using it as a more abstract compositional form. The peak became one of the clearest visual emblems of her New Mexico work.
The mountain is not the same as Ghost Ranch, the place where O'Keeffe spent extended periods painting. Ghost Ranch is a landscape and retreat area; Cerro Pedernal is a specific volcanic mesa visible from parts of the region. O'Keeffe's repeated treatment of the peak shows how she returned to particular places while varying viewpoint, season, color, and degree of abstraction.