Bloomy Wild West
The rebellious spirit of the wild west, the gust of creativity in the deserted artistic landscape. Daring artist who showcased her inner world by transforming reality and crafting the utopian landscapes within her imaginarium. Famous for her bloomy gaze, she transformed the mundane objects into colorful canvas, overfilled with sensation. Vanguard artist full of expression, connecting visual and aural and promoting harmonies perceived in nature. Lush of experiences alluring behind frames. Ladies and gentlemans - Georgia O'Keeffe.
Georgia O’Keeffe Photo: Tony Vaccaro/Getty Images
A modernist painter of American origin, O'Keefe remained independent from many artistic movements of her time and managed to be reigned as “Mother of American Modernism”. Her artistic narrative explored a variety of topics but her main focus was always rooted in nature. Flowers, skulls, deserted landscapes - the well-known and dear to the artistic soul narratives. Born in Wisconsin, she finds her way to her true home, the soul-mate-like place on Earth - Santa Fe in New Mexico. This would be the place of her artistic upbringing, the muse for the rest of her life. The love for the wild nature is embedded in her works, you can sense it almost on a physical level behind the brushwork and color palettes.
"I had to create an equivalent for what I felt about what I was looking at – not copy it." Georgia O’Keeffe
By the 1920’s she received recognition as the prominent artist of her generation. The starting point to her success was the depiction of New York skyscrapers, as well as her equally radical depictions of flowers. O’Keeffe showcased her love and courage in the realm creation, hypnotizing the public by her own vision of reality, expressed through deliberate forms. In the summer of 1929, O’Keeffe made the first of many trips to northern New Mexico. It's the marking point of her new artistic venue and establishing the modernist nature of her pieces.
Another vivid point to make is the intimacy of her pictures, almost naked closeness to nature. O'Keeffe's flower paintings are among her most famous works, characterized by their large-scale, close-up portrayals of blooms. O'Keeffe's approach to painting flowers was unique—she magnified them to such an extent that they often filled the entire canvas, transforming these natural subjects into something more abstract and powerful. One of the reasons her flower paintings became so iconic is the way they blurred the line between representation and abstraction. By zooming in on petals and floral forms, she invited viewers to look at these familiar subjects in new ways. The flowers, often seen as delicate and feminine, took on a monumental, almost architectural quality in her work, suggesting strength and sensuality.
Many debates revolve around the meaning of the bloomy paintings. Some critics have interpreted them as symbols of feminine sexuality, while others see them simply as explorations of form and color. However, O'Keeffe herself rejected the sexual interpretations, marking that she was merely interested in the beauty of nature and in making people notice the small details they might otherwise overlook.
“Nobody sees a flower, really, it is so small. We haven't time - and to see takes time like to have a friend takes time. If I could paint the flower exactly as I see it no one would see what I see because I would paint it small like the flower is small. So I said to myself - I'll paint what I see - what the flower is to me but I'll paint it big and they will be surprised into taking time to look at it - I will make even busy New Yorkers take time to see what I see of flowers."
“Black Iris” 1926 by Georgia O’Keeffe Located in Gallery 903 New York City, NY, US
Another pinnacle of her exploration were skulls and bones - one of the most vivid subjects of her life within the West spirit. Her skull paintings are often seen as symbolic works, representing themes of life, death, and the passage of time. However, O'Keeffe herself stated that she was not painting death, but rather the beauty she saw in the bones and skulls. The dry, barren desert landscape was filled with life in its own way, and the skulls represented a kind of enduring beauty—stripped down to their essential forms, much like the landscapes they inhabit. The expansive desert landscapes, bleached bones, and rugged natural forms captivated her, and she began collecting bones during her long walks through the desert. Her most prominent skull painting is "Cow's Skull: Red, White, and Blue" created in 1931 under the precisionism movement notion. The skulls were seen by O’Keeffe as a symbol of the American Spirit visible in the colorful background stripes and the example of eternal deserted beauty admired by her creative vision. Rather than viewing the skulls as symbols of mortality, O’Keeffe saw them as beautiful objects, stripped of their original function but retaining an elegant, almost sculptural quality.
She will return to the topic of bones and skulls in many of her works, capturing and reflecting the unique sight into the dreadful nature, blooming under her brushwork.
“Cow's Skull: Red, White, and Blue" (1931) by Georgia O’Keeffe Located in Metropolitan Museum of Art (Met), New York City, NY, US
As legendary as her flowers and skulls are her images of the Wild West landscape. The sweet escape into the realm of deserted nature, naked and raw. Her landscapes, especially those inspired by the American Southwest, reflect her deep connection to nature and her ability to distill the essence of a place into abstract, yet powerful forms. O'Keeffe's landscapes often featured sweeping skies, expansive plains, rugged mountains, and vivid colors that captured both the serenity and harshness of the environment.
The most defining feature of her scenery is the simplification and abstraction, reducing complex scenes into broad, flowing shapes, focusing on key elements of the spectacle. Abstraction allowed her to emphasize the emotional and spiritual resonance of the places she painted, rather than just their physical appearance.
Deeply embedded in her dreams and close to her soul, they were extremely personal, a mirror-like reflection of her personal sight, her attitude to nature. Pedernal, a flat-topped mountain in New Mexico, was a recurrent subject in her works, and she famously said, "It’s my private mountain. God told me if I painted it enough, I could have it."
"Red Hills with Pedernal" (1936) by Georgia O’Keeffe
O’Keeffe is a master of many kinds. Her art evolved and foresaw many beautiful sceneries in the surroundings, proposing a regard unseen before. Her love for America and its nature were prominent throughout her whole career, being the muses and objects of depiction. She is regarded as one of the leading artists of her generation, with her pieces hanging on the walls of the worldwide known galleries. She is the moment. The power of her artistic essence is undeniable and fierceful. Her ability to translate fleeting moments into something both intimate and monumental is deeply present in all of her works. Even in a male-dominated art world, O’Keeffe carved out her own space, unafraid to push boundaries and embrace her unique voice. She wasn’t interested in trends or fitting into established categories. Instead, she forged her own path, one that was as bold and uncompromising as the subjects she painted. Her paintings are not just to be looked at - they are to be felt, experienced, and understood on a deeper level. In this way, her legacy is not just one of artistic achievement but one of emotional truth. She remains a towering figure, not only in the world of art but in the broader cultural landscape, as someone who redefined what it means to see and be seen.
“To create one's world in any of the arts takes courage.” Georgia O’Keeffe
