Georgia O’Keeffe (1887-1986) bought her first home in the remote high-desert plateau of northern New Mexico at the Ghost Ranch in 1940. She discovered the dude ranch located on 21,000 acres of spectacular landscape in 1934. The intense colors and dramatic scale of the harsh environment moved her to rent a room immediately and to return to paint again the next year. In 1936, she stayed in an adobe house built by Arthur Pack, who owned and operated the ranch. After staying in the house for four years, she bought it and seven acres of surrounding land. The intense contrasts of color and form in the eroded hills and rocky mesas were visually irresistible to the artist and challenged her to find new techniques and colors to express her experience on canvas.
