My Shanty, Lake George 1922

This is O’Keeffe’s "My Shanty, Lake George," a painting of a weathered barn, probably made with oil paints. The colours are rich, but muted, like she mixed a bit of grey into everything. I love the way she handles paint - look at the roof of the barn. It’s not just one flat grey, but a bunch of tones layered on top of each other. You can almost feel the texture of the shingles. And then there’s that little white window, a perfect rectangle that contrasts with the looseness of everything else. It’s a simple shape, but it holds the whole composition together. O’Keeffe's work always reminds me of Marsden Hartley, another artist who found beauty in the everyday landscapes of America. Both were part of that generation who were trying to forge a new, distinctly American, form of art. And in a way, that shanty is a symbol of that desire, a humble but solid structure rooted in its place.