Chance, as much as anything, steered Georgia O'Keeffe to the Southwest. Something much stronger, though--call it fate or circumstance or character--primed her for what she discovered there. Put simply, this artist found her landscape of the heart--and she found it first not in New Mexico, but in the sprawling Panhandle of Texas.

Like most unschooled fans of her work, I was surprised by that fact. I had always associated the artist with the sere high desert north of Santa Fe, New Mexico. Visiting the Panhandle, though, I now understand how the time she spent here inspired her vision and shaped how she would paint for the rest of her life.