Georgia O'Keeffe

artist · nature · American art

Painter of flowers. Georgia O'Keeffe painted huge, close-up flowers that filled entire canvases. She wanted people to really look at the details and colors in nature that they usually overlooked.

Desert landscapes. O'Keeffe fell in love with New Mexico's deserts and painted them for most of her life. Her paintings captured the glowing colors and strange shapes of rocks, bones, and rolling hills she found there.

Independent artist. O'Keeffe didn't follow the big art trends of her time. She created her own style and stuck with it for over 70 years, making her one of the most important American artists ever.

Trained as a teacher. Before becoming famous, O'Keeffe worked as an art teacher and taught other people how to see and create art. She believed everyone could learn to draw and paint.

Just an artist. Many people wanted to see O'Keeffe as a 'woman artist,' but she insisted on being called simply an artist. She wanted her work judged for its quality, not her gender.