New Mexico became Georgia O'Keeffe's principal home and subject after the 1920s.
O'Keeffe first visited New Mexico in 1917 and returned frequently during the summer months beginning in the late 1920s. She was drawn to the state's stark landscapes, adobe buildings, churches, mountains, desert plants, and animal bones. These subjects became central to her mature work.
She spent time in Taos, Ghost Ranch, Abiquiú, and other parts of northern New Mexico. After Alfred Stieglitz died in 1946, she moved permanently from New York to New Mexico in 1949. She maintained homes in Abiquiú and Ghost Ranch and continued painting the region for decades.
New Mexico is sometimes confused with Arizona because both states are strongly associated with Southwestern art. O'Keeffe's most sustained connection, however, was with northern New Mexico, whose landscapes supplied recurring motifs such as the Pedernal mountain and the walls of her Abiquiú home.