Which Texas canyon inspired Georgia O'Keeffe during her years teaching in West Texas?

Palo Duro Canyon inspired Georgia O'Keeffe during the years she taught art in West Texas. Its immense layered walls and vivid colors became important subjects in paintings made while she lived in the region.

O'Keeffe taught at West Texas State Normal College in Canyon, Texas, from 1916 to 1918. Palo Duro Canyon lies near Canyon and is often called the Grand Canyon of Texas because of its scale and multicolored geological formations. The landscape offered her a setting very different from the northeastern art world.

Palo Duro Canyon is not one of O'Keeffe's New Mexico locations, although the two regions are often grouped together because both influenced her use of desert forms and intense color. Her Texas paintings helped establish a lasting connection between her art and the landscapes of the American Southwest before her later New Mexico journeys.