Southwest Fall 2016-3: Georgia O'Keeffe Country - Ghost Ranch, Abiquiú, Santa Fe

Lake Abiqui: our van just left of Pedernal, a subject Georgia O'Keeffe returned to repeatedly.

    From the North Rim of the Grand Canyon we stocked up in Tuba City, drove east through the Navajo and Hopi Reservations, and ended the day in a campground in Gallup, New Mexico. 

    We felt quite safe what with the guard dog across from us as we hit the showers, fixed dinner, and did laundry. The campground was packed due to the annual Albuquerque International Balloon Festival.

Campground Guard Dog.

    The next morning, after filling the crockpot with stew fixings and plugging it into the inverter (allows our van’s two 12 volt batteries to power a 110 volt crockpot), we were off for Georgia O’Keeffe Country. On top of the visual stimulation of the countryside we passed through, we now enjoyed the amazing aroma of our upcoming dinner.

Near Abiquiú, New Mexico, northeast of Santa Fe.

    Having visited the Rianna Campground on Abiquiú Lake last spring, we quickly found a site and enjoyed our crockpot stew.

Rianna Campground, Abiquiú Lake.

Crockpot stew we'd been smelling all day while driving from Gallup to Abiquiú.

Campground visitor.

Pedernal from our campsite.

    Next morning it was off for the Ghost Ranch Landscape Tour. Unable to do this tour in the spring, I had looked forward to it. I was not disappointed.

Ghost Ranch, where Georgia O'Keeffe had a home.

    As we checked in, the tour guide, Jeri Burzin, made small talk, asking where we were from, and voilà, she had just moved to Albuquerque from Visalia, our home town. Small world.

Ghost Ranch landscape, typical of this area.

    After a video about Georgia O’Keeffe and Ghost Ranch, we joined ten others in a small van and headed out toward O’Keeffe’s Ghost Ranch home. Along the way, we made several stops to compare her paintings with the actual landscape.

Tour guide, Jeri, shows O'Keeffe painting of hill to her right in background.

Jeri describing techniques O'Keeffe used in painting of tree behind her.

    I learned so much—how O'Keeffe focused her paintings like a camera zoom lens and used specific techniques such as geometrical shapes—while taking in the amazing scenery.

Jeri holding up one of O'Keeffe's Pedernal Hill paintings, with Pedernal in the background.

Actual painting at Georgia O'Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe: "Road to Pedernal."

Doug, Cliff Chimneys, Ghost Ranch.

"Cliff Chimneys," 1938.

O'Keeffe house at Ghost Ranch.

Ghost Ranch.

    For most of our Southwest trip we were a mile high or more, in clear air that enabled us to see long distances and made the colors so vibrant. The puffy white clouds O’Keeffe so often painted seemed as if we could reach up and touch them.

Georgia O'Keeffe Country: blue skies, puffy white clouds, desert colors.

    The next day Marilyn was off for her tour of O’Keeffe’s home in Abiquiú, while I drove to Española for a grocery run and wash of the van (couldn’t take it to Santa Fe covered with road grime).

When in New Mexico...

    O'Keeffe's Abiquiú home is in the typical Southwest adobe style.

Wall along road.

I loved everything about the house & grounds, starting with the huge wood entry door, which dates from ca 1776.

Entry door seen from corner of house. "Corner" seems inaccurate, as the adobe walls were of course rounded.

    O'Keeffe's gardens continue to be worked, with water available once weekly. In New Mexico, so long as water is used, the rights are maintained.

Irrigation system.

Stones mark rock to be removed to allow water to enter this section of garden.

    Although the tour includes the majority of the house, pictures were allowed only on the outside.

Quintessential adobe home ladder to roof. Sculpture in window is pictured below in O'Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe.

The Kitchen.

Back entry to kitchen.

O'Keeffe's studio on left. Garage on right.

Room on left is now used as an office. Through the gate is the garage on the left & O'Keeffe's studio on the right.

View of Chama River Valley from O'Keeffe's Abiquiú home.

O'Keeffe loved rocks. We can identify.

    When we reconnected, Mariliyn gushed with enthusiasm of her tour. Again, she learned a lot about how O'Keeffe painted, including her flattening of perspectives
    That afternoon, we continued to explore the area and take in the vistas, including a hike around part of Lake Abiquiú.

Pedernal. Lake Abiquiu.

O'Keeffe painting of Pedernal.

Walk along Lake Abiquiú.

Sunset from Lake Abiquiú campground.

O'Keeffe's Pedernal. 

    O'Keefe called Pedernal her private mountain and is said to have commented, whether seriously or jokingly, "God told me if I painted that mountain enough, he'd give it to me."

Pedernal through side door of van.

Abiquiú Dome, built by Northern New Mexico College students in 2006, inspired by a mosque in Türkiye.

Santa Rosa de Lima Mission, 1734, near Abiquiú, New Mexico.

The church was active until the 1930s.

    As the sun rose the next morning, we were off to Santa Fe and our two nights in an AirBnB. Though a bit farther from downtown than we wished, the place was comfortable, and the dining recommendations were right on.

Each day found us exploring the plaza, reading the historical plaques, and smiling as we encountered new places.

Blue doors on Burro Alley, Santa Fe, reminded Marilyn 

of the Blue Door Panaderia (Bakery) in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico.

The requisite honey on the Santa Fe dinner table for the sopapillas, a yummy fried, puffy bread.

    Our visit to the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum was impressive, informative, and rather grand.

Doug & O'Keeffe painting.

"Abstraction," white lacquered bronze. Marilyn loved this sculpture. Another is at O'Keeffee's home in Abiquiú.

"Spring," 1948, typical O'Keefffe subjects of Pedernal, bones, flowers.

    Along with our AirBnB dining recommendations, we found a couple more places that served amazing Santa Fe cuisine, each one different. Our Santa Fe experience was definitely one for memories, and we look forward to returning to explore more.

    The one thing we won't miss is Doug's burned foot from the Grand Canyon that led to a sliced finger in Santa Fe. We won't go into the details, but a visit to the ER brought repair and relief. 

New Mexico flora:

   

Like hollyhocks, but with thorns.

  

Sunset in Georgia O'Keeffe Country.

Next up: Heading South-Southwest toward home.