Abiquiu, New Mexico

On Sunday I drove up from Santa Fe to Abiquiu to visit the home of Georgia O'Keeffe. I read that you had to have a reservation for tour the home and that they were closed on Sunday but I wanted to visit the town and surrounding area.  O'Keeffe moved from New York to make New Mexico her permanent home in 1949, and lived either at the Abiquiu or Ghost Ranch houses until 1984, when she moved to Santa Fe because of ill health. I had seen paintings she had done in Abiquiu at the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe and wanted to see the colors she vividly described in her writings.















Driving up the dirt road off the main highway I got the feeling I was traveling back in time. Modern Abiquiu is a quaint village clustered around the historic church of Santo Tomas.  The town square was extremely quiet except for a rooster crowing.
















I parked in front of the Abiquiu Library and took a stroll around photographing a man sitting outside his house whittling.















I walked over to the O'Keeffe compound and took a few shots outside the walled area when over walked Leonard, the person in charge of security for the day.  He and I chatted and he told me much about the town. It turns out his grandfather used to own the land that the O'Keeffe house now stands on and he himself had lived in the village all his life.  He was very engaging and told me about a great restaurant for chile rellenos nearby.  I asked him if I could take his portrait (having learned these techniques from Bill Allard at the National Geographic Workshop) and he posed quite a while for me.

















I walked up the hill on the dirt road to the mesa top Pueblo of Abiquiu that was established by the Spanish in 1754. The three crosses on the hill stand out against the snow capped mountains in the background. The stations of the cross were situation on an adjacent hill.  The view was spectacular and I can imagine Georgia O'Keeffe strolling up this hill to paint and enjoy her view.