Ghost Ranch inspired Georgia O'Keeffe's painting series featuring New Mexico cliffs and desert forms.
Ghost Ranch is a retreat and historic area near Abiquiú in northern New Mexico. O'Keeffe first visited the region in the 1930s and rented a house there, eventually making the landscape one of the defining subjects of her career. She painted its cliffs, hills, bones, and broad skies in both representational and highly simplified forms.
The area's striking red and yellow rock formations helped produce paintings such as the works associated with the Ranchos de Abiquiú and Ghost Ranch surroundings. O'Keeffe often walked alone through the landscape, collecting objects and studying the way light changed the appearance of the land.
Ghost Ranch and Abiquiú are related but not interchangeable. Ghost Ranch is the larger retreat and landscape area; Abiquiú is the nearby village and the site of O'Keeffe's restored adobe home. Both places are now essential to understanding the New Mexico period of her art.