Watercolor, Evening Star No. IV, 1917

Watercolor, Evening Star No. IV, 1917
Georgia O’Keeffe Museum

Surprise! Georgia O’Keeffe didn’t just make large iconic oil paintings of flowers, skyscrapers and bones against a desert landscape!

Georgia O'Keeffe at age 30 with her watercolors in Texas, 1916

Georgia O’Keeffe at age 30 with her watercolors in Texas, 1916
Photograph by Alfred Stieglitz

Miss O’Keeffe, not quite 30 and not yet famous, moved to Canyon, Texas, in 1916. She spent 17 months in the tiny Panhandle town, teaching at a local college and painting small, luscious watercolors of the Texas landscape and nude figures.

Sunrise and Little Clouds, 1916 Georgia O'Keffee

Sunrise and Little Clouds, 1916
Georgia O’Keffee Museum

Nude Series VIII, 1917 Georgia O'Keeffe Museum

Nude Series VIII, 1917
Georgia O’Keeffe Museum

Problem…Nude models were definitely frowned upon for women artists in 1917, and O’Keeffe was intensely interested in painting the human form.

Solution…O’Keeffe used her own body as her model.

O'Keeffe photographed at home in Abiquiú, New Mexico

O’Keeffe photographed at home in Abiquiú, New Mexico Photo by Philippe Halsman, 1948

In 1986, late in life and almost blind, O’Keeffe enlisted the help of several assistants to enable her to once again create art.

“I’ve been absolutely terrified every moment of my life – and I’ve never let it keep me from doing a single thing I wanted to do.” Georgia O’Keeffe

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