An Orchid

1
An Orchid

• Georgia OKeeffe was born in Sun Prairie
  Wisconsin in 1887.
• Her parents, Ida and Francis OKeeffe, had 7
  children and they wanted them all to be educated.

2
Leaves of a Plant

• Both of Georgias grandmothers painted pictures
  and some of their artwork hung in the farmhouse
  where Georgia grew up.
• In the late 1800s girls were not encouraged to
  become artists.

3
Petunia

• However, Georgias parents arranged for the
  children to take private drawing and painting
  lessons.
• Every Saturday they traveled seven miles round
  trip in a horse and buggy for art lessons.

4
Poppies

• Georgia discovered that she liked to paint with
  watercolors.
• In 1902 the family moved to Virginia where
  Georgia attended a boarding school and continued
  to study art.

5
Poppy

• After she graduated from high school, she went to
  the Art Institute of Chicago to study art.
• Very few women were enrolled, so her talent was
  already helping her succeed.

6
Red Canna

• Unfortunately, she became ill with typhoid fever
  and went home to recover with her family in
  Virginia.
• After working as a commercial illustrator, she
  taught art at a school in Amarillo.

7
Two Jimson Weeds

• Georgia sent some of her drawings to her friend
  Anita in New York City.
• Her friend was so excited with them that she
  shared them with a famous photographer and
  gallery owner, Alfred Stieglitz.

8
White Pansy

• While Georgia was in New York preparing for a
  teaching job at a Texas College, she discovered
  that Alfred was exhibiting her drawings without
  her permission.

9
Blue Morning Glories

• They argued, but in the end, Georgia decided to
  let him show her work.
• Over the next two years they wrote letters and
  visited each other and fell in love.
• Georgia moved back to New York in 1918.

10
Radiator Building

• In 1924 they were married and moved into the
  penthouse of a skyscraper in New York City.
• She painted a number of building and skylines
  during this time.

11
Morning Glory with Black - 1926

• Georgia decided to create very large flower
  paintings. She felt that if they were big like
  the huge buildings going up, people would be
  startled. They would have to look at the
  flowers.

12
White Camelia

• So, while her work is realistic and represents
  what she saw, it is also abstract because she
  focuses on a detail and paints what she wants
  about the flower, not every line in the flower or
  the whole flower.

13
White Rose with Larkspur

• She called her enlarged plants and flowers
  magical realism.
• OKeeffe became famous through Alfreds exhibits.
• A giant flower painting would sell for 25,000 in
  1928.

14
Autumn Leaves Lake George

• Alfreds family owned a house in Lake George and
  they spent many summers there.
• In 1929 Georgia visited New Mexico with some
  artist friends and fell in love with the wide
  open spaces.

15
Fragment of the Ranchos de Taos Church

• Like other artists, she painted the famous
  church, but she painted it in her own unique way.
• When it was time to return to New York, she
  wanted to continue to paint the things she saw in
  New Mexico.

16
Summer Days

• Because she could not take back flowers, she
  collected a barrel of bones to paint.
• She became most famous for her pictures of
  flowers and skulls.

17
View from my Studio - 1930

• Every summer she returned to New Mexico.
• In 1946 when her husband Alfred died, she made
  New Mexico her permanent home.

18
Sunflower New Mexico

• In 1962 she was elected to the American Academy
  of Arts and Letters, the nations highest honor
  for artists.
• In 1971 her eyesight began to fail and she tried
  pottery while continuing to paint.

19
Hollyhock with Pedernal

• In 1986 she died at the age of 98 and her ashes
  were scattered over the top of Pedernal Mountain.

20
Cow Skull and Calico Rose

• This is one of her most famous paintings.
• There is a museum dedicated to her art and her
  life in Santa Fe, New Mexico.