Black Hollyhock Blue Larkspur, 1930 by Georgia O'Keeffe

Regardless of their degree of abstraction, O'Keeffe's flower paintings derive directly from her experience of the blossoms. She described the source of Black Hollyhock Blue Larkspur, 1930:

"When I was at Mabel [Dodge Luhan]'s at Taos . . . there was an alfalfa field like a large green saucer. On one side of the field was a path lined w wers. . . . One day walking down the path I picked a large blackish red hollyhock and some bright dark blue larkspur that immediately went into a painting - and then another painting."