The name is absent

80

and takes out the purple and grey colors that were prevalent in the first painting. There is
a slight hint of a deep V-shape fold in the hills and there is a great deal of surface texture
giving the impression that the hills almost seem to move or flow. Thus, as concerns
perspective, it follows Black Rock with Blue Sky and Red Clouds very well.

It also serves as a transition image for the second painting chosen for this
movement, Red Hills and Sky, (1945). Also a study of the Pedemal Hills, this painting
has far less detail than the previous one, and the image is dominated by the clear blue sky
with small suggestions of the mountains in the lower left and right hand comers which
create a deep and profound V shape in the picture.

It seems odd that Larsen chose to represent two paintings with the same subject but
very different viewpoints in this movement. When asked about this, Larsen admits that in
retrospect Red and Orange hills now seems like a sort of “transition image” to her in
terms of the flow and order of the artwork. “Really I was interested more in the close-up
and the red.. .1 wasn’t interested in the detail.”⁵⁸ She was however drawn to the hint of
the V shape in the painting, and although she admits it is not the most successful of
transitions, she now feels that the music is more representative of the second painting,
Red Hills and Sky.

O’Keeffe’s narrative for this painting is as follows:

A little way out beyond my kitchen window at the Ranch is a V shape in
the red hills. I passed the V many times—sometimes stopping to look as it
spoke to me quietly. I one day carried my canvas out and made a drawing
of it. The shapes of the drawing were so simple that it scarcely seemed
worthwhile to bother any further. But I did a painting—just the arms of
two red hills reaching out to the sky and holding it.

⁵⁸ Larsen, interview, 8/2008.

⁵⁹ O’Keeffe, 85.

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