When Georgia O'Keeffe was first living at Ghost Ranch she began to hanker for a bigger house that she could live in over the winter, in the same area of New Mexico she had come to love. O'Keeffe was very fussy about what she ate and liked to have a lot of fresh vegetables so it needed to have a garden. In the 1930's she found a ruined adobe house in Abiquiu, not far from the church. The house is old, some parts are thought to date back to the 1730's. Unfortunately it belonged to the church and it was not until 1945 that they agreed to allow her to buy it. Her friend Maria Chabot, under Georgia's instruction, oversaw the renovation work and it was completed in 1949. Georgia, as was her habit, fell out with Chabot after the work was completed but managed to reconcile later. After her husband Stieglitz had died in 1946 Georgia spent nearly three years in New York settling his affairs. After that she left New York permanently and spent her time at the Abiquiu house or up at Ghost Ranch.
I had booked tickets for a tour of the house, before we had left the UK, as they sell out. We met at the welcome centre and were bussed down to the house with our nice guide who again was very knowledgable. The weather had turned quite bad and by the time we got to the house it had started to snow.
We went into the house by the back gate and looked at the garden. The watering system was interesting. One of the reasons O'Keeffe wanted the house was that it had water rights. The garden was built with channels running around the beds and once a week the garden would be flooded with water. This would be enough to keep it damp, even through a hot summer, and enable a good crop of vegetables. These would be preserved to last through the winter months.
We entered into the enclosed courtyard area which was very beautiful. It contained the black door which O'Keeffe had found so fascinating about the dwelling and made her want to own it. There was also a ladder leaning against the wall. In Ghost Ranch O'Keeffe had often used a ladder to sleep on the roof on hot nights. The ladder is also significant because the pueblo dwellers accessed their houses through a hole in the roof using ladders like this wooden one.
We could see through the large windows into the sitting room with its collection of stones on the sill.
There was a fine set of antlers and a little face on the wall.
Going through a narrow entrance we accessed another courtyard where a separate building was used as Georgia's studio.
At last we were pleased to be getting out of the cold and going into the house. We walked through the kitchen and pantry where she stored her food, having a glimpse into the dining and sitting room on the way.
Finally we entered a much larger, bright and airy room which Georgia used as a studio. There was a bed in one corner for the use of a companion as Georgia, who lived until she was 98 and left Abiquiu for Santa Fe only two years prior to her death, needed live in help. Like the sitting room this room had two enormous picture windows which, even on the dull day it was, gave a lot of natural light. At the opposite end to the bed was a large wooden table which she used to create art, latterly with an assistant. Her eyesight went as she got older and she started to make sculpture instead of painting as she could feel the work rather than see it. The white sculpture is hers.
She had a number of items on a shelf built into the adobe around one side of the room. The black sculpture was made by one of her friends.
A door opened off this room leading to a small bathroom and closet. From there we were led onto her bedroom which was very monastic, with a single bed, a fireplace and little else. It did though have an enormous window that wrapped round two walls.
Getting back into the garden we caught the bus back to the visitor centre and had some lunch. I was very jealous of her home with its mix of historic and modern and with such beautiful interiors.
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