Georgia O'Keeffe's New Mexico

 

In which Moominmama visits Ghost Ranch in Abiquiu, where Georgia O'Keeffe created some of her most famous landscapes and bone paintings...

Fun fact: Ghost Ranch, where Georgia O'Keeffe stayed as a guest and eventually made a home, was where infamous cattle rustlers called the Archuleta brothers set up shop in the late 1800s. They would steal other people's cattle and herd them far into the box canyons to keep them out of sight of the law. 

After the Archuleta brothers were gone, roaming cattle became a problem in the area, and government officials ordered local ranchers to collect their livestock or they'd be shot. They made good on the threat too.

These are the bones that were so plentiful when O'Keeffe visited the ranch site, and she created striking paintings of the stark white shapes. It is actually hard to visit the landscape here and not be influenced by her way of seeing. That's partly the mark of art: that it influences how you see things.

Moominmama found her impressions of Ghost Ranch were literally colored by familiarity with the O'Keeffe paintings. It was hard to separate the two. O'Keeffe's work is just part of our culture now.

This is a land that she loved: the Abiquiu area. The burgundy and rust cliffs, striped with grey-blue ash, or mixed with mustard-colored sandstone, dotted with dark green juniper are everywhere here. As are the tall, proud cottonwood trees that line the river and floodplain.

She was invited to stay at Ghost Ranch in 1934, then a dude ranch, and would return, eventually buying a house on the property. Later in life, she would build a home closer to the center of Abiquiu -- and Moominmama has a ticket to tour that house next week. 

But Ghost Ranch was an enormous influence on her paintings, and it was fascinating to take tour of the property with a tour guide who brought images of certain paintings so you could compare them against the landscape. O'Keeffe's paintings, even when they appear more abstraact, turn out to be remarkably accurate in color and shape. There are many artists who create from their imaginations. O'Keeffe created from her power of observation, from seeing what was truly there. The colors may seem intensified, shapes abstracted -- but come here and you realize, she painted them dead to rights.

It also became clear that some of what look like paintings of mountains were actually studies in much smaller badlands hills -- hills where she stood directly at the base looking up. When you compare the landscape against the painting, you can guess exactly where she stood!

Moominmama has long enjoyed O'Keeffe's paintings, but has a new appreciation for the artist's truth telling.

This is a landscape where people have lived for thousands of years, and evidence of a large indigenous community remains. 

The Abiquiu area has cliffs but it also has the Chama River, which carves a path of lush greenery through an otherwise spartan, albeit colorful, sandstone landscape. 

Moominmama hiked through one ancient village to an overlook where there is a modern illustration of what the village once looked like. And if you look closely, you can see the faint lines on the plain below where the walls once stood. Poshuouinge was home to several thousand people who took advantage of the site's proximity the river to farm and fish. 

The nearby overlook provided a warning system but was also used as a work area, and remnants of flint and tools were found there. And this was just one of dozens of villages in the area.

Ghost Rance also was once home to a large community of Ancient Puebloans. So many artifacts were discovered there that Ghost Ranch has its own small Museum of Anthropology. The former dude ranch is now owned by the Presbyterian Church and operates as a retreat center as well as being open to visitors for tours and hikes. Ghost Ranch, in fact, has regularly hosted the Intermountain Yearly Meeting of Quakers. 

Moominmama will remain in this area for another week, enjoying wonderful hikes, history and culture. More next week on some of the lovely campsites and adventures to come!