New Mexico became Georgia O'Keeffe's main artistic home and a central source of her imagery.
O'Keeffe first visited New Mexico in 1917 and returned regularly during the 1920s. She was drawn to the region's stark light, adobe buildings, mountain formations, desert plants, and animal bones. These subjects became recurring elements in her paintings.
She began spending much of each year in New Mexico after 1929. In 1949, three years after Alfred Stieglitz's death, she moved there permanently. She lived and worked in Abiquiú and also maintained a home near Ghost Ranch.
New Mexico did not replace her earlier subjects entirely. O'Keeffe continued to paint flowers, city architecture, and other forms, but the state's landscapes became inseparable from her artistic identity. A common mistake is to describe her as a Southwestern painter from the beginning; her career began in Wisconsin, Virginia, Texas, New York, and South Carolina before New Mexico became her enduring base.