Calla Lily ~ 1923
Called the "Mother of American modernism", Georgia O'Keeffe (1887 - 1986) gained international
recognition for her paintings of natural forms, particularly flowers
and desert-inspired landscapes, which were often drawn from and related
to places and environments in which she lived.
And this was shot from our balcony at the Defiance House Lodge in Bullfrog where we had a wonderful picnic dinner. What magnificent colors and mountains.
Similar to the image I captured above in Lost Eden Canyon on Lake Powell where Len and I scattered my parents ashes, and a place where we had scattered my brother Carter's ashes ten years ago.
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The Barns, Lake George ~ 1926
Having been raised on a farm in Wisconsin, O'Keefe saw the barns and building as a connection to the land and nature. The grey structures and sky reflect the somber mood she often felt at Lake George.
Georgia O'Keefe and Alfred Stieglitz ~ 1938
O'Keefe spent summers and falls in the Adirondacks at the Stieglitz family home on Lake George, an area that gave her inspirations in portraying nature in a realistic and abstract form. She married photographer Alfred Stieglitz in 1926.
Black Cross with Red Sky ~ 1929
It was in 1929 when she made her first major visit to New Mexico, during a time when her relationship with Stieglitz was strained. She was drained creatively and emotionally, especially after Stieglitz's long-term affair with her friend and fellow photographer Dorothy Norman. She ended up spending the summer in Taos as the guest of Mabel Dodge Luhan, a well known patron of the arts in New Mexico.
Cross with Red Heart ~ 1932
She was attracted to the Catholic Crosses that appeared on the New Mexico landscape. She wrote: "In New Mexico, the crosses interest me because they represent what the Spanish felt about Catholicism - dark , somber - and I painted them that way ... On the Gaspe', the cross was Catholicism as the French saw it - gay, witty."
In the Patio VIII ~ 1950
I am particularly drawn to this piece, the colors, composition, the shadows.
O'Keefe was an independent, adventurous individual, often taking long treks alone, which she called "rambles" in the countryside.
Black Mesa Landscape ~ 1930
Having spent a few days in Utah and New Mexico, I clearly can see where she found such inspiration. I shot this on the way to Bullfrog, Lake Powell, Utah.
On the River I Canyon Country III ~ 1965
She often explored the Southwest on camping trips and other outdoor excursions. This painting was inspired by a rafting trip down the Colorado River at the age of 73. The inspiration came from the pink/reddish soaring cliffs in Glen Canyon.
Black Place III ~ 1944
Having
spent time in New Mexico over the last two decades, she moved here
permanently in 1949, a few years after the death of Stieglitz. She made
several trips, 150 miles from her Ghost Ranch where she found
inspiration.
Part of the Cliff ~ 1946
The view from behind O'Keefe's Ghost Ranch house of a cliff with its tall, dry waterfall. She wrote: "Badlands roll away from my door, hill after hill... All the earth's colors of the painter's palette are out there in the many miles. The light Naples yellow through ochres - orange and red and purple earth - even the soft earth greens."
Another image I captured in Lost Eden Canyon, Lake Powell. A place I could photograph all day long.
Pedernal ~ 1941 - 1942
Her view of Cerro Pedernal (Flint Mountain) from Ghost Ranch House. A sacred site to the Indigenous and Hispanic communities for thousands of years and one that she developed immense love and respect for.
My photo of Mount Hillers in Utah. Named for J. K. Hillers, photographer with the 1871 John Wesley Powell Colorado River Survey Party. This peak, one of five in the Henry Mountains Range, rises 10,723 feet above sea level. Winters snow high on these peaks feed springs and streams, providing water for recreation, livestock, wildlife, including a free roaming bison herd.
Untitled ~ 1970
Painted when the artist was ninety, she returned to some of the forms found in her earlier charcoals, highlighting vibrant blues and reds in her watercolors. She wrote: "I get this shape in my head and sometimes I know what it comes from and sometimes I don't... And I think... there are a few shapes I have repeated a number of times during my life and I haven't known I was repeating them until after I had done it."
The Georgia O'Keefe Museum located right in the historic center of Santa Fe is not a huge museum and does not have an overwhelming amount of her works but if you have traveled thru Arizona, Utah and New Mexico, one will appreciate her love of the countryside and how she captured its essence so beautifully.
The Georgia O'Keefe Museum
217 Johnson Street
Santa Fe, New Mexico
okeefemuseum.org
