New Mexico became Georgia O'Keeffe's principal home and artistic setting.
O'Keeffe first visited New Mexico in 1917, but her sustained relationship with the region began in the 1920s. She was drawn to its intense light, broad skies, adobe buildings, bones, flowers, and desert formations. These subjects became central to her mature work and helped distinguish her art from her earlier New York paintings.
She moved to New Mexico permanently after Alfred Stieglitz died in 1946. O'Keeffe lived and worked in Abiquiú and Ghost Ranch, while also maintaining a home in nearby Santa Fe later in life. Her New Mexico paintings are not simply travel sketches; they reflect decades of repeated observation and careful selection of motifs.
The state is sometimes confused with Arizona because both are associated with the American Southwest. O'Keeffe's best-known homes, studios, and landscape subjects, however, are specifically connected with New Mexico. The region's visual vocabulary became one of the defining foundations of her artistic reputation.