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O'Keeffe in
West Texas
One of America's premier artists found her life's inspiration
in the plains and canyons of the Panhandle.
By Dianne Young
Chance,
as much as anything, steered Georgia O'Keeffe to the Southwest.
Something much stronger, though--call it fate or circumstance or
character--primed her for what she discovered there. Put simply,
this artist found her landscape of the heart--and she found it first
not in New Mexico, but in the sprawling Panhandle of Texas.
Like most unschooled fans of her work, I was surprised by that fact.
I had always associated the artist with the sere high desert north
of Santa Fe, New Mexico. Visiting the Panhandle, though, I now
understand how the time she spent here inspired her vision and
shaped how she would paint for the rest of her life.
Her Spiritual
Home
O'Keeffe described Texas as her "spiritual home." When she was a
child in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin, her mother read to her on rainy
days, Sunday afternoons, and most every night. The stories of the
Old West romanced her independent spirit, and she deeply longed to
see it.
In the fall of 1912 she did just that. For two years O'Keeffe
supervised art in Amarillo's public schools, and while none of her
paintings survives from that time, the place took hold of her soul.
She loved the sheer geometry of the plains: its flat sweep of earth
and the answering unbroken vault of sky, both scoured by wind and
seared by sun. When she returned to Texas in 1916 to head the art
department at West Texas State Normal College (now West Texas A&M
University) in Canyon, the plains became her principal
subject--those and nearby Palo Duro Canyon.
Looking back, it's easy to see that everything this well-trained
artist had studied and done before had prepared her for the
pioneering work ahead. Her work indeed seems inevitable, but
O'Keeffe needed the time and luxury to paint in isolation, free of
naysayers. Clearly, too, the scenery--in some places startlingly
spare, in others rugged and fabulously colored--afforded her imagery
like none she'd ever known. It all coalesced in the Texas Panhandle.
There she learned to make a landscape her own.
A Wonderful
Emptiness
Canyon
today is a metropolis compared to the little settlement that greeted
O'Keeffe when she stepped off the train that early fall night. She
said she could count all the houses in less than a half hour, but
that didn't dismay her. Instead, she gloried in the country's strong
lines and emptiness. Within a week, she wrote, in her peculiarly
clipped style, to her friend Anita Pollitzer about the blazing sky
and the ocean-like expanse of the prairie: "I am loving the plains
more than ever it seems--and the SKY--Anita, you've never seen such
SKY--it is wonderful..."
Driving through the flatlands that surround the town, I encounter
the scenes that so appealed to O'Keeffe. I recognize all the shades
of gold she celebrated in the land and see in the silhouette of this
farmhouse or that windmill the echo of a form she put to watercolor.
I am mesmerized with the arch and the reach of the sky and the
unending parade of wind-frayed clouds.
She must have been gazing at a similar sight that morning decades
ago when she began to brush strokes of maroon, orange, red, and
cobalt blue onto canvas to create Sunrise and Little Clouds No.
II. The result, a blend of abstraction and representation,
demonstrates the synthesis she sought in her art. She aimed to paint
what she felt for a subject as much as the reality of what she saw.
From the
Classroom to the Canyon
The
Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum occupies a site near where
O'Keeffe instructed in art. An exhibit set in a brightly lit corner
of the second floor commemorates her time and work in Canyon. An old
black-and-white photograph freezes her students in class. A yearbook
portrait captures the 28-year-old artist: the high cheekbones; her
dark, direct eyes; the heavy slash of her eyebrows; the slight
half-smile she always seemed to wear. The true prize, though, is
Red Landscape, one of only three oils she did while in Canyon.
The painting reflects what O'Keeffe experienced in Palo Duro
Canyon--a landscape sculpted on a planetary scale and drenched in
bold colors. It looked, as she remembered--and painted--"a burning,
seething cauldron, filled with dramatic light and color."
"It's an early Modernist painting by her," explains Michael Grauer,
curator of art for the museum. "This is a seminal point in her
career. When she got here, she was inspired by what she saw. The
rest, of course, is history."
A Curious Slit
in the Plains
Palo Duro
Canyon was an irresistible magnet for the artist in O'Keeffe. She
went there almost every weekend, scrambling down its talus slopes
and exploring every inch she could walk. The formations, chiseled
over millions of years by rain and flood, fascinated her. The
mercurial light, igniting an entire spectrum of brilliant colors,
captivated her. Everything about Palo Duro challenged her to paint
it as she alone saw it.
"I wish you could see the landscapes I painted last Monday out where
the canyon begins," she wrote to Anita. "You possibly remember that
my landscapes are always funny and these are not exceptions--Slits
in nothingness are not very easy to paint--but [it's] great to
try..."
At the overlook, next to the visitors center of Palo Duro Canyon
State Park, I stand about where O'Keeffe must have stood. The ground
drops away just beyond my feet, and before me yawns a spectacular
rent in the earth. In places, the canyon walls plunge in a vertical
free fall hundreds of feet. In others, they slope down almost
gracefully, crenulated like a lady's long skirt. It looks, too, as
if a rainbow has crashed to earth and strewn the canyon with its
pieces. I start naming shades--rust, scarlet, copper, salmon,
vermilion, saffron, mustard yellow, lavender. I run out of
adjectives before I do colors.
Tomorrow I will follow the winding two lane into Palo Duro to comb
the park for the site of O'Keeffe's Red Landscape. I'll hike
the dusty miles of Lighthouse Trail and rest in the shade of
Lighthouse Rock. There, I'll marvel at the pillars, buttes, and
mosques carved haphazardly in stone.
For now, though, I wait for dusk, just as O'Keeffe would have, near
where the canyon begins. The sun, sliding lower, pierces through
gathering storm clouds to sweep the cliffs and slopes like a
searchlight. It isolates and multiplies every color it touches,
turning rock into something vibrant and alive.
In 1916, O'Keeffe wrote to Alfred Stieglitz, the man destined to be
her mentor and her husband: "First plains--then as the sun was lower
[in] the canyon--a curious slit in the plains... wonderful
color--darker and deeper with the night. Imagination makes you see
all sorts of things."
In my imagination I see the young Georgia O'Keeffe, poised in
dancing light on the rim of Palo Duro, poised at the edge of insight
and creation.
In Search of
O'Keeffe
Located on
the campus of West Texas A&M University in Canyon, The
Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum has Georgia O'Keeffe's Red
Landscape on permanent display. It is open 9 a.m.-6 p.m.
Monday-Saturday and 1-6 p.m. Sunday. Admission costs $4 adults, $3
seniors, and $1 ages 4-12. To learn more call (806) 651-2244, or
visit
www.panhandleplains.org
Palo Duro Canyon State Park, O'Keeffe's landscape
inspiration, lies 12 miles east of Canyon via State 217. The park
offers camping, hiking, and trail rides. It also schedules various
educational programs and special events, such as TEXAS, A Musical
Drama. The show ($10-$23 adults, $5-$23 ages 11 and under) takes
place in the park's amphitheater at 8:30 p.m. Thursday-Tuesday June
6-August 17. Park gates are open 8 a.m.- 10 p.m. daily, and
admission is $3 per person over 12. For more information call (806)
488-2227, or visit
www.palodurocanyon.com .
Hudspeth House Bed and Breakfast, at 1905 Fourth Avenue East
in Canyon, was once the place where O'Keeffe took her meals. The
three-story Victorian house now serves as an inn. Rates range
$85-$150 during the summer and include breakfast. For more
information call (806) 655-9800, or visit
www.hudspethinn.com .
Amarillo Museum of Art, located on Amarillo College's
Washington Street Campus, owns four of O'Keeffe's watercolors. The
most notable of these is Train at Night in the Desert, 1916. The
works are on display at various times; check with the museum to
verify the schedule. Hours are 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday-Friday and 1-5
p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Admission is free. To learn more call
(806) 371-5050, or visit
www.amarilloart.org .
Georgia O'Keeffe Museum, at 217 Johnson Street in Santa Fe,
New Mexico, houses the world's largest number of her works,
including some of her Texas pieces. Hours are 10 a.m.-5 p.m.
Saturday-Thursday and 10 a.m.-8 p.m. Friday July-October. The hours
are the same the rest of the year except the museum is closed on
Wednesday. Admission is $8 per person. For more information call
(505) 946-1000, or visit
www.okeeffemuseum.org .
© Copyright Southern Progress Corporation, 2000. All rights
reserved.
(http://www.southernliving.com)
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The Hudspeth
House B&B was chosen out of hundreds as 1 of the 12 Best B&B
Inns in the State of Texas! by Jean Simmons, travel writer/columnist
in Southern Living's Texas Vacations spring/summer 1997.
Southern
Living Magazine
(Special Edition - Spring/Summer 1997)
©1997 Southern Living, Inc. Reprinted with permission.
Texas Vacations - Resorts
All About Inns
We asked travel writer Jean Simmons, the authority on Texas B&B's,
to select her favorites. Here are the 12 she'd visit again and again.
(excerpts)
Choosing the best bed-and-breakfast inns in the small towns and
along rural roads in Texas can be difficult. But I have guidelines,
including innkeepers who go the step beyond to make a place memorable.
I like to choose a certain inn for certain times and situations,
such as a cold night in the Hill Country with howling wind and flashing
lightning. The perfect setting depends on what atmosphere you're
looking for to get a little rest and relaxation. ~
The Best Offbeat Location: The
Hudspeth House in Canyon may well be in the right place at
the right time. Skiers en route to Colorado or New Mexico find this
a convenient stopover, business travelers like the modem hookups.
We find it the most distinctive lodging for attending a performance
of TEXAS in nearby Palo Duro Canyon or visiting Panhandle-Plains
Historical Museum. The B&B has been stripped off excessive bric-a-brac,
has lovely wooden floors, and has had several large baths added.
Jean is a travel writer for the Dallas Morning News, which publishes
a column on Texas inns and B&B's in the Sunday travel section.
To learn More about Southern Living Magazine,
visit their website:
Southern
Living Magazine
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Good Days, Good Nights On I-27
by Gary
Ford
Conquistadors trudged near the path of today's I-27, finding only
the gold of the sunsets on the Llano Estacado.
Each time I travel with the ceaseless wind along I-27 between Lubbock
and Amarillo, I feel like I'm driving through the middle of a movie
on a panoramic screen of grass and sky. The film opens thousands
of years ago, with prehistoric people following fame. Then it cuts
to Coronado and his conquistadores tramping across these vast stretches
looking for gold. They, and later explorers, discovered only the
gold of sunsets and a country so featureless that they found their
way across it by piles of stones, bones, and buffalo dung. Or so
goes the story about how the Llano Estacado., the Staked Plains,
got its name.
This movie-drive needs popcorn. It smells like the feature is just
starting inside Panhandle Popcorn in Plainview, 48 miles north of
Lubbock. Inside, Jim Mock and his people; are popping kernels for
bags of Buttery Popcorn, Vanilla Butter Corn (with almonds and pecans),
and Hot Cheese Popcorn.
You can stretch your legs in downtown Plainview, where several antiques
shops angle around its square. Most Prominent is Old World Antiques,
with price tags in the thousands and Christmas and other gift items
for a few dollars. As the road reaches Canyon, the film rewinds
to the Texas of the later 19th century. The Panhandle-Plains Historical
Museum, on the campus of West Texas A&M University, relates
the history of this land of wind, spanning time frame thousands
of years ago tot he 20th century. Riding into the picture alongside
a thundering herd of longhorns comes Charles Goodnight.
In 1866, Charles Goodnight and Oliver Loving blazed the Goodnight-Loving
Trail, one of the routes along which cowboys drove cattle to northern
markets. Ten years later, Charles established the JA Ranch in nearby
Palo Duro Canyon, the first ranch in the Panhandle.
Canyon looks like a movie set for a small town, where life strolls
around the courthouse square. At the Fountain, Katie Hamblen presides
over the old-time soda fountain. Down Home, an antiques store, jingles
and jangles with 450 pairs of antique spurs, some valued as high
as $10,000.
Down the street leather smells wonderful in Ron Carlton's Saddle
Shop. Adjacent to the saddle shop, Branding Iron Gallery offer Western
art and a good collection of rare books on Texas and Western subjects.
Now the musical score for this movie-drive-in rises. In Palo Duro
Canyon State Park, 10 miles east of Canyon on State 217, the curtain
of night parts on another production of TEXAS, the outdoor drama.
Gods gets an Oscar for set design, the canyon walls soar high as
the backdrop for the song and dance rendition of the story of Texas.
As day fades to black, Amarillo lies 14 miles ahead, It's easy to
find the city in the dark. The lights are spread out like candles
on the windowsill of the Texas plains.
RIDING THE I-27 TRAIL
Distance: 119 miles from Lubbock to Amarillo
Lodging: Chain lodging can be found in both Plainview and Canyon.
A good bed-and-breakfast is Canyon's Hudspeth House , occupying
a 1910 home. Rates are $85-$150, with full breakfast; (806) 655-9800
or (800)-655-9809.
Dining: Several
restaurants are at Exit 49 in Plainview. Leal's is a Panhandle chain
of Mexican restaurants, open 11 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. Tuesday-Sunday,
3311 Olton Road. You can have soup, salad, or sandwiches at the
The Fountain in Canyon, open 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday-Saturday,
404 15th Street.
Information: Plainview Plainview Chamber of Commerce, 710 West Fifth
Street, Plainview, TX 79072-6234; (806) 296-7431. Canyon Chamber
of Commerce, P.O. Box 8 Canyon, TX 79015; (806) 655-7815 or 1-800-999-9481.
Tickets for TEXAS: The drama is presented nightly except Sunday
June 11- August 23. Tickets prices range $7-$16 adults, $3.50 -$14
ages under 12. And if you would like to include a barbecue dinner,
prices are $6.50 adults, %5.50 children. Write Box 268, 1514 Fifth
Avenue, Canyon, TX 79015, or call (806) 655-2181.
Gary D. Ford - Texas Vacations
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