Gifts from Georgia’s Garden: How Georgia O’Keeffe Nourished Her Art

Tired of New York City’s “cars, crowds, and skyscrapers,” Georgia O’Keeffe (1887–1986), who’d been painting large, lush flowers, escapes to the “canyons, mesas, and skyscapes” of New Mexico. There, she gets in touch with both the land and her younger self—the Wisconsin farm girl determined to be an artist. O’Keeffe cultivates a garden and paints to the rhythms of nature as well as welcomes friends to simple, bountiful meals. “The art of caretaking—of her home and her garden—nourished O’Keeffe’s art-making,” Robinson writes. Hooper’s illustrations range from the realistic to the impressionistic; one vignette shows an elaborately layered bouquet of blooms emerging from O’Keeffe’s head, while another illuminates a long outdoor table laden with home-cooked foods. It’s an uncomplicated portrait that highlights how the intersection of environment and creative freedom formed an artist for whom “everything was art, and art was everything.” An afterword includes the subject’s recipe for pecan butterballs. Ages 4–8. (Mar.)