Cowgirl Museum’s new O’Keeffe exhibit shows how camping trips in West inspired her paintings

New O’Keeffe exhibit shows artist’s different side

FORT WORTH, Texas — The elegant Georgia O’Keeffe is known for her large-scale paintings of vivid flowers, but she got inspiration for other works during many rustic camping trips out West.

That little-known side of O’Keeffe is the focus of a new exhibit opening Friday at Fort Worth’s National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame.

It features her never-before-displayed camping gear including her tent, sleeping bag, lanterns and cooking utensils. All of those come from her summer trips to New Mexico in the 1940s.

Museum curator Tricia Taylor Dixon says the exhibit shows how O’Keeffe wanted to be close to nature to capture it.

The exhibit also features some paintings, sketches and candid photographs of the artist. The late O’Keeffe spent summers in New Mexico for years and moved there in 1949.