Destiny was to be O’Keeffe’s friend: She’d love New Mexico and her paintings
of its sun-washed landscapes and blooming plant life, would make her famous.
After yearly visits, she would move there permanently in 1949. Her canvases
would become so coveted that — according to people I met in New Mexico — upon
her death in 1986 (at age 98) she left an estate worth an estimated 60 million
dollars.

* * *

New Mexico has an agreeable climate year-round. Winter temperatures in Santa
Fe range from around 7 C in January to 13 C in March. It’s history is deep and
unique: It finally became an American state in 1912. As for practicality, it has
hotels of every class and fashion.

I stayed in several, most memorably Santa Fe’s authentic Hotel Chimayo, where
the open-to-the-sky corridors are lined by hanging wine-tinted chile ristras,
and the luxurious Hilton Buffalo Thunder Resort, near Taos, where dinner was
memorable not only for the New Mexican Lamb but also for its exceptional
presentation.

Another indicator of New Mexico’s emerging place on the travel map is the
number and quality of its spas. One I visited — Ten Thousand Waves, a few miles
north of Sante Fe — is noteworthy for its professional and surprisingly large
staff. My therapist, Nuella, helped ease a minor backache but also taught me
relaxation techniques.

Ten Thousand Waves has a spacious open-to-the-sky hot tub, where guests have
to make a choice: Enjoy the water and the glorious New Mexico sunshine with
clothes or without. (I know what you’re wondering, and the answer is no.)

* * *

They call northern New Mexico “Georgia O’Keeffe country.” That includes Santa
Fe, where I began and much of the land above it. The artist spent parts of her
long life in three places: Santa Fe, Taos and a speck of a town called Abiquiu.
It’s natural to begin visiting her sites in Santa Fe, the heart of which –
steps from Hotel Chimayo — is a remarkably old plaza dating almost to the
city’s founding in 1608.

While she didn’t reside long in Santa Fe, the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum,
dedicated to her work, has the world’s largest collection of O’Keeffe paintings,
including some landscapes and bright blooming florals.

I left Santa Fe and drove north about two hours to Taos. The town of about
5,000 is in many ways the heartland of New Mexico’s artistic history. O’Keeffe
went there on her initial visit in 1929, and stayed at the home of Mabel Dodge,
an arts patron who opened her home to creative visitors including Carl Jung and
Willa Cather. Today the Mabel Dodge Luhan House is an inn, where history and
character haunt the halls. Guests can stay in rooms occupied by O’Keeffe or
Cather, who wrote there.

“We try,” docent Judy Jordan told me, “to keep the building as it was long
ago.”

The lands around Taos were a lifelong study for O’Keeffe. These were the
reason she would return for stays of a month or so, before moving permanently to
New Mexico. Eventually she rented a building, set on 3 hectares just beyond the
town and beneath sun washed mountains, on a property called Ghost Ranch. While
it suited her to a degree, she sought still more privacy, so in 1945 she built a
home in an away-from it all village called Abiquiu, about a dozen miles from
Taos.

It’s tiny, with a population of about 80. Her adobe home, which I visited, is
austere, and as you walk through it, you sense the intense privacy of the owner.
Open by appointment, it’s so popular visitors must make an appointment well in
advance.

In all, O’Keeffe spent most of her long life in New Mexico, and did one
painting per week, said Karen Butts, a guide at the Ghost Ranch.

“She had a spectacular view for painting from her house,” Butts said, “and
called it ‘my backyard.’”

Over the years, O’Keeffe painted countless canvases, gained popularity and
was dismissed by critics. One claimed she was merely a “painter of pretty
pictures.”

Not so. In Santa Fe, even a cursory stroll through the O’Keeffe museum
reveals an artist of distinct perspective: The mountains rise in specific form
and character, each unique; the deep colours and character of plants reflect her
specific view. She once said of the land around Taos: “The colour up there is
different … the blue green of the sage and the mountains …”

After visiting The Georgia O’Keeffe museum — with its vast collection of
more than 1,000 pieces — I left wishing there was more time to study the work
of this historic woman. But, then again, the land that beckoned her, also
beckoned me. It’s a landscape so remarkable it beckons all who visit New Mexico
to return.

More information

For more on travel, see New Mexico’s website newmexico.org, which includes
information on accommodations and a month by month calendar of events. For the
Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, see okeeffemuseum.org.