Georgia O'Keeffe

Sources: The Met: A Storm, The Met: Seated Nude XI, The Met: East River from the Shelton Hotel, Georgia O'Keeffe Museum: Untitled (Woman with Blue Hat), Georgia O'Keeffe Museum: Shell No. 2, Georgia O'Keeffe Museum: Alligator Pears, and Georgia O'Keeffe Museum: Jimson Weed.

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  Watercolor

  In Canyon with Crows (1917), the O’Keeffe Museum records watercolor and graphite on paper and describes two flying crows against dominant green and orange. The work is a specific example of watercolor carrying a finished landscape composition, rather than serving only as preparation for later oils.

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  Oil paint

  O’Keeffe added oil to her practice in 1918, retaining the fluid space and curving motifs of her earlier charcoal works; later paintings ranged from abstraction to enlarged flowers. These examples distinguish her oil practice from her watercolor works on paper.

Sources: Georgia O’Keeffe Museum: Canyon with Crows, The Met: Seated Nude X, Whitney: Abstraction, The Met: Grey Line with Lavender and Yellow, and Whitney: Georgia O’Keeffe’s artistic development and visual language.

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  Paper

  Paper supported O’Keeffe’s watercolors and later pastel works. The Georgia O’Keeffe Museum catalogs Canyon with Crows as watercolor and graphite on paper, and Pink Camellia as pastel on paper. These examples show paper serving both her early mixed-media landscapes and her later close studies of natural forms.

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  Cardboard

  O’Keeffe used cardboard for oil paintings as well as color tests. The museum records Untitled (Horse) (1914) as oil on cardboard and documents cardboard and heavy paper in her later Color Cards, Shades of Cadmium. The examples connect an early finished painting with the practical material studies she made decades later.

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  Canvas

  Canvas appears in O’Keeffe’s oil paintings, including East River from the Shelton Hotel (1926), catalogued by the Met as oil on canvas. The broad city view shows canvas in a finished urban composition, complementing her close-up flower paintings and the smaller works she made on board or paper.

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  Linen

  Linen is documented separately in the museum catalogue, including In the Patio II (1948), recorded as oil on linen. That specific support distinguishes this work from entries catalogued simply as oil on canvas and helps keep the surface description tied to the object record rather than assuming all her textile supports were the same.

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  Painting board

  O’Keeffe also used rigid board for paintings, including Rose (about 1957), catalogued by her museum as oil on board. This differs from paper works that were later mounted to board: the catalogue identifies the painted support itself as board, giving a clear example of a rigid surface in her oil practice.

Sources: Georgia O’Keeffe Museum: Canyon with Crows, Georgia O’Keeffe Museum: Pink Camellia, Georgia O’Keeffe Museum: Untitled (Horse), Georgia O’Keeffe Museum: Color Cards, Shades of Cadmium, The Met: East River from the Shelton Hotel, Georgia O’Keeffe Museum: In the Patio II, and Georgia O’Keeffe Museum: Rose.