O’Keeffe’s description of a Native American necklace she acquired while driving through Colorado reflects the close attention she paid to its structure, which she drew from two different angles. “For the front the eagle claws were graduated in size from a very large one to very small ones where the beans began for the back of the necklace,” she observed. The artist accentuated the distinct qualities of the necklace’s two components by outlining the talons with a dense black line to reinforce their sharpness and by wiping passages of charcoal away from each bean to emphasize its roundness.
Gallery label from Georgia O’Keeffe: To See Takes Time, April 09, 2023–August 12, 2023