Red Hills with Flowers

Fascinated by contrasts in scale, Georgia O’Keeffe frequently juxtaposed enlarged still-life elements with distant landscapes, as seen in Red Hills with Flowers, an image of vibrant blossoms magnified against the dry, steep hills surrounding her home in New Mexico. She admired the striking colors of the land, later equating them with artist paints: “All the earth colors of the painter’s palette are out there in the many miles of badlands. The light Naples yellow through the ochers—orange and red and purple earth—even the soft earth greens.”