O'Keeffe's Abiquiu House where she spent wintersI took the tour of O'Keeffe's home in the village of Abiquiu for the second time yesterday. This time I could relax and be more observant, since I wasn't so overwhelmed by the experience. It's a lovely old adobe. When O'Keeffe bought it in 1946 from the Catholic church it was little more than a ruin. With the help of Maria Chabot, she restored it. The structure follows the original footprint of the old adobe ruins, but O'Keeffe had windows cut in to allow her better views of the landscape.
The house is maintained, as much as possible as, in the exact state that it was in when O'Keeffe was forced to move to Santa Fe due to her health in the late 1980s. Her rock collections are sit on every available flat surface.
Here at the Ghost Ranch, 12 miles down the road, I am carrying on her practice, picking up stones and branches. I wake up with the sun and watch the light catch on the outline of Pedernal, the mountain that O'Keeffe loved so much. Her home here is not open to the public, but the view is not much different. The cottage she stayed in her first few summers here is still available as a guest house.
This afternoon I'm taking a tour of O'Keeffe Country.
O'Keeffe's Ghost Ranch House, Rancho de los Burros, where she spent her summers
Lavender Hills, Ghost Ranch near O'Keeffe's house
Cliffs beyond Abiquiu - Dry Waterfall, Ghost Ranch
Cedar Tree, Ghost RanchI've met a wide range of people who knew O'Keeffe, from a woman who worked as a checker at Kaune's back then, to a receptionist at the O'Keeffe Home and Studio Tour who keeps her parents' wedding photo on her desk. She looks just like her mom and the woman standing with her parents is O'Keeffe. Several of the older folks here at Ghost Ranch remember O'Keeffe.
I'll try to check back tomorrow.
I have two more nights here before I hit the road back to Texas.
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