Cerro Pedernal was a recurring subject in Georgia O'Keeffe’s paintings and the place where her ashes were scattered.
Cerro Pedernal is a flat-topped mountain in northern New Mexico. O'Keeffe viewed it from her homes and painted it repeatedly, often simplifying its form into a strong horizontal mesa rising above the surrounding landscape.
The mountain became one of her personal symbols. She once described it as her private mountain, and its distinctive profile appears in several works associated with her New Mexico years. Its location near Abiquiú and Ghost Ranch placed it within the landscape she knew intimately.
After O'Keeffe died in Santa Fe on March 6, 1986, her ashes were scattered from the summit of Cerro Pedernal. That detail distinguishes it from other important New Mexico subjects, including the cliffs of Ghost Ranch and the distant mountain landscapes around Taos.