Which New Mexico peak appears repeatedly in Georgia O'Keeffe's paintings and letters?

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Cerro Pedernal is the New Mexico peak that appears repeatedly in Georgia O'Keeffe's paintings and letters.

Cerro Pedernal is a flat-topped mountain in northern New Mexico, near Abiquiú and Ghost Ranch. O'Keeffe painted the distinctive mesa from different viewpoints and treated it as a recurring landmark in her personal geography. She once wrote that it was her private mountain and that God told her she could have it if she painted it enough.

The peak is not the same as the Sangre de Cristo Mountains or the more distant Mount Taylor, both of which are also associated with New Mexico landscapes. O'Keeffe's repeated use of Cerro Pedernal shows how a specific local feature could become an enduring abstract and symbolic form in her work. The mountain's recognizable horizontal summit helped make it especially suitable for repeated studies.

Source: Wikipedia · fact-checked Oct. 2026

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