Ghost Ranch inspired many Georgia O'Keeffe paintings and became known as her favorite place. The ranch is a dramatic landscape near Abiquiú in northern New Mexico, marked by red cliffs, mesas, and broad open spaces.
O'Keeffe first visited the area in 1934 and returned regularly. She painted its hills and formations from carefully chosen viewpoints, often simplifying them into strong planes of color and shape.
She rented a house at Ghost Ranch for many years and also owned the nearby Abiquiú home. The two locations are closely connected in accounts of her New Mexico life, but they are not the same place.
Ghost Ranch is now a retreat and education center operated by the Presbyterian Church. Its scenery also appears in films and is associated with paleontology, including discoveries of dinosaur fossils. O'Keeffe’s paintings helped make its visual identity internationally recognizable.