New Mexico inspired many of Georgia O'Keeffe's bone and desert paintings after she began visiting the state in 1929.
O'Keeffe first visited New Mexico in the summer of 1929 and returned repeatedly. She was drawn to its intense light, wide spaces, cliffs, churches, adobe buildings, and discarded animal bones. These subjects became central to a major phase of her work.
She often carried bones back to her studio and arranged them as compositional subjects. Paintings such as Cow's Skull: Red, White, and Blue combine a natural object with strong color and a broad Southwestern setting, while other works isolate bones against the sky.
New Mexico did not replace all of her other subjects. O'Keeffe continued to paint flowers, landscapes, and architectural forms, and she also maintained important connections to New York. Nevertheless, the state became the defining landscape of her later career.