Georgia O'Keeffe was born on November 15,1887 near Sun Prairie, Wisconsin and became known in the art community of New York at the age of 29.
This was several decades before women were allowed to train in the art field in America's universities and colleges.
No other women were well known or celebrated before she came onto the art stage.
Less than a decade after she was introduced to the art community she became known as an important artist and this continued until she passed away.
She was the forerunner for women painters that had previously been reserved for men.
Georgia O'Keeffe began her art training in 1905 at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, but only stayed there a year.
In 1907, she moved to New York City's Art Student League were she was able to study under the guidance of William Merritt Chase.
The following year she won the League's William Merritt Chase still-life award.
Her prize was to spend the summer studying at the school's Lake George, New York.
She determined that she would never be able to distinguish herself using the training she had obtained though and discarded the idea of working as an artist.
She took a four year break and began working as a commercial artist.
It wasn't until 1912 that she took up painting again.
She then worked as a teacher for a number of years.
In 1916, her work was introduced to Alfred Stieglitz who was very impressed.
He held an exhibition of her work which is when her career took off.
They married and began spending time in Lake George where Georgia O'Keeffe continued to pain.
Her career continued to take off and she took her inspiration from the many photographers that she and her husband associated with while living in this area.
Known for her innovative abstract images, Georgia O'Keeffe revolutionized flower painting in the 1910s and 1920s.
In 1929, Ms.
O'Keeffe began spending part of each year in Northern New Mexico and here work began to undergo a transformation.
Here she painted subjects native to the region.
Before she made this move, men were the ones to depict the landscape, cultural objects and other items found here.
She chose to permanently move to New Mexico in 1949 and this area of the state is now known as O'Keeffe Country as a tribute to the work that she completed here.