Georgia O'Keeffe's art often reflects the places she lived. O'Keeffe (1887-1996) lived in New York, but starting in 1929 she spent her summers in New Mexico. This painting, called Horse's Skull with Pink Rose, was painted in 1931 and is one of many paintings she created to define her feelings about the New Mexico desert. She called the area "the faraway," and in 1949 she moved permanently to Abiquiu, New Mexico, a city near Santa Fe.

O'Keeffe loved the desert of New Mexico, especially the dry landscape and the hot sun. During her time there, she made paintings using the colors and subjects she felt captured the environment. She often collected the animal bones that were scattered across the desert floor and cloth flowers sold in towns throughout the area.

She began painting combinations of animal skulls, bones, and flowers in 1931. In this painting, O'Keeffe chose to paint the bleached skull of a horse and a cloth rose. The bright pink rose accidentally fell into the eye socket of the skull as O'Keeffe prepared to paint. This arrangement inspired her to paint the skull with cloth flowers in other places like behind the horn or in the nose. 

Georgia O'Keeffe made paintings of things that she felt captured the spirit of Abiquiu, New Mexico. What are the things you love about your neighborhood?  Make individual drawings of those things or combine some of them into a single picture. 

You can see Horse's Skull with Pink Rose in the American Art galleries in the Art of the Americas building at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

Search Collections Online to see photographs of Georgia O'Keeffe.

Georgia O'Keeffe (United States, Wisconsin, Sun Prairie, 1887–1986)
Horse's Skull with Pink Rose, 1931
Oil on canvas, 40 x 30 in. (101.6 x 76.2 cm)
Gift of the Georgia O'Keeffe Foundation, AC1994.159.1
Photo © 2007 Museum Associates/LACMA