New Mexico became Georgia O'Keeffe's principal source of landscapes after 1929.
O'Keeffe first visited New Mexico in the summer of 1929. She was captivated by the high desert's intense light, broad horizons, adobe buildings, cliffs, and objects such as animal bones. The region supplied imagery that became central to her mature work.
She continued spending part of each year in New Mexico during the 1930s and 1940s. In 1949, three years after Alfred Stieglitz's death, she moved there permanently. She lived and worked at several locations, including Abiquiú and Ghost Ranch.
New Mexico did not replace her earlier interests in flowers and abstraction, but it gave those interests a distinctive setting. O'Keeffe's Southwestern paintings are often associated with the state, although she also painted New York, Lake George, and other subjects.