A watercolor of arches that fade from light green to black on a gold background.

Light Coming on the Plains No. III

Georgia O'Keeffe (1887-1986)

Date

1917
Medium

Watercolor on newsprint paper
Dimensions

11 7/8 x 8 7/8 in.
Mount: 12 x 9 in.
Inscriptions

Verso:
inscribed on label [removed]: Light Coming on the Plains \ 1917 \ No. III
Credit Line

Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Fort Worth, Texas
Accession Number

1966.31
Copyright

© Amon Carter Museum of American Art

While teaching at West Texas State Normal College in Canyon, Texas, during the summer of 1917, O’Keeffe created these abstract impressions of the sun rising over the wide-open Texas plains. The works reflect her bold individuality at a time when women artists struggled to attain recognition, considered unequal to their male counterparts. O’Keeffe stayed up all night to experience dawn when the effects of light were the most transitory and ephemeral. In these watercolors, she spontaneously layered deep ultramarine pigment on paper, allowing the fluidity of the medium to form the final design.

Location: Off view

See more by Georgia O'Keeffe

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