Georgia O’Keeffe’s Abiquiu Home & Studio – Front Gate Area

I have wanted to take the Georgia O’Keeffe Home & Studio Tour in Abiquiu for all the years we’ve been visiting the area.  And, finally this visit, we did take the tour.  It was great, and I’m happy to share our tour experience with you!

Layout of Georgia O’Keffe’s Home

This certainly isn’t a photogenic image!  However, I thought it might help you understand how her home and the tour was set up.  Altho we walked thru much of the inside of the home & studio, no photographs were allowed inside or from the outside looking inside, so I’m sort of glossing over those areas of the home and have only identified the areas where I’ve photographed and that will be covered in blog posts.  An interesting note is that the home and studio were left as they were when Georgia last lived here, in 1984.  She had to leave her home at that time, for health reasons.  She moved to Santa Fe and died there in 1986 when she was 98 ½ years old.

View from Front Gate Area

When you are in the front gate area of Georgia’s home and turn around so that your back is to the front gate, this is the view.  Isn’t it beautiful?  Georgia’s home is up on a hill, so her views are wonderful.

Gate into Front Courtyard

Georgia used to drive her car up and thru this gate in order to reach her garage.  It is left pretty much as it was when she used it.  The gate itself is not very sturdy – more of a suggestion not to enter when it’s closed, than something that could really keep people out!  The opening creates a nice invitation to visit the garden in the front courtyard, which we’ll do in another post, but for now…

Front Gate

Here is a collection of some details of the front gate structure, and a peek at what’s on the other side of the gate.  The adobe used on the front gate is the original type of adobe, made with mud.  Georgia recovered much of the actual house to a concrete adobe, which is still used today, due to easier maintenance.  With the original mud, it would be necessary to recover the entire surface every few years, or it would begin to peel, as you see in one of the images.  The other image of the gate is of the old hand-forged hinge that used to be used.  It would seem that the gate opened at the center at one point in its history.  The final image should look familiar to those Georgia O’Keeffe fans.  It’s a white trumpet flower that appeared in many of her art works.  This one is located just inside the front courtyard.

Thru the Front Gate

For this image, I stood inside the front courtyard looking out.  I love the combinations of textures, from the peeling adobe on the gate wall, to the old rustic wood, to the wire on the face of the gate, to the greenery beyond.

Outside of Supply Door

As we walked along the front gate area in the front of the house heading to the back garden, we passed by this door.  The guide said it was a supply door, and that the supplies needed for the house were delivered thru this door into a small inner courtyard.  It’s not terribly impressive from this side, but wait until you see it from the other side in a following post!

Georgia’s Dog Sign

We needed to pass thru this gate to get to the big back garden within the walls of the home & studio.  This sign is one that Georgia put up to warn people of her two Chow dogs.  Altho they were fine with her, they had the reputation of not being very welcoming to others!

Enjoy!