Introducing The O’Keeffe Palette
A handmade leather natural watercolor palette by Martha Mae and Beam Paints made in collaboration with Tundra Leather.
Over a year in the making, we are thrilled to announce our latest palette collaboration with Beam Paints. Inspired by the colors of Georgia O’Keeffe’s paintings and the natural beauty of the New Mexico desert, we designed two styles of leather travel palettes filled with the vibrant pigments of Beam’s natural, handmade watercolors.
This is our fourth time designing palettes with Beam Paints and Tundra Leather. Our first three designs were inspired by William Turner’s paintings, bound in a rich mahogany colored leather. As we conspired on a new design, Georgia O’Keeffee brought us endless inspiration. From ideation and research to planning and production, this palette has been a labor of love. We feel so honored to work with such talented and thoughtful craftswomen who have such high standards of quality.
Available in both 20 paintstones and 30 paintstones, each palette is handcrafted in a beautiful natural leather that mimics the color of the Earth at Ghost Ranch. Inside you will find a portable travel paintbrush and beeswax canvas that keeps the paints from rubbing on each other when closed and fastened. The blush hue pairs beautifully with a brass button stud closure.
When inspiration struck for our new watercolor palette, we knew we needed to learn more about the place and woman that inspired us all. Visiting Ghost Ranch for the first time in 1934, O’Keeffe was encapsulated. For years, she stayed for summer on the ranch in a small cottage, before purchasing the ranch owner’s residence Rancho de los Burros in 1940. By 1949, she had moved to the state permanently. She lived there the rest of her life.
“To me it is the best place in the world. Each time I leave here it is like a Death, and each time that I return it is a Birth.”
Often remaining secluded, O’Keeffe noted that the ranch sparked something inexpressible to her. She loved the vast terrain, the bright blue sky, and the intense, hot sun. It’s said that she painted Pedernal, the flat-topped mountain that sits just south of Ghost Ranch over 28 times. She referred to it as her mountain and joked that "God told her if she painted the mountain enough, he’d give it to me". Today, many people still call Pedernal, O’Keeffe’s Mountain.
Georgia found inspiration in the smaller details of the terrain as well. Bones, rocks, and pieces of wood became subjects for her artwork. Bones, especially, intrigued her. She saw them as beautiful flowers of the desert and symbols of life. As with her flower pictures, O’Keeffe painted bones close up and larger than life.
"It's something that's in the air, it's different. The sky is different, the wind is different".
- Georgia O’Keeffe on New Mexico
As we developed the color scheme of this palette, we referenced many of O’Keeffe’s New Mexico paintings, like Road to Pedernal, Red and Yellow Cliffs, Pedernal with Red Hills, and Mesa and Road East.
With vibrant blues, earthy neutrals, and various greens and yellows, The O’Keeffe Palette contains all of the colors you need to paint your own natural landscapes. Each vibrant and unique on their own, Beam’s plant-based pigments blend beautifully due to their all-natural binders such as gum arabic, maple syrup, and tea tree oil.
The Martha Mae team visited Ghost Ranch in June to understand the magic of the land and host their very own watercolor workshop where Georgia O’Keeffe herself once painted. 25 of us stayed on the beautiful grounds of Ghost Ranch, nestled amidst the breathtaking red and yellow cliffs of the Piedra Lumbre. Ghost Ranch warmly welcomes individuals from all corners of the world who seek inspiration, connection, and a profound sense of wonder, and that is just what we found there.
We studied the clouds and practiced different watercolor techniques to capture each changing moment in a cloud study. Outside of the art center, the terrain was both rocky and full of life. The students spent their afternoon studying rocks and wild botanicals, painting detailed portraits of the ephemera they gathered on their walks. When night fell, the sky began to glow in hues to pink, orange, and yellow. The rockfaces were highlighted by the setting sun, feeling larger and more powerful than in the day. We watched the clouds pass and the light change before our eyes, while painting the sunsets that ended our workshop days.
It was a transformative experience and left us filled with wonder and awe. We feel incredibly lucky to have had such a beautiful experience with a group of talented and curious new friends. This retreat has inspired us to plan more teaching travel in the future.
This palette was designed with love and handcrafted for inspired travel. We hope you feel the magic of the desert - we know we do. These limited edition palettes are now available in the U.S. through Martha Mae and in Canada through Beam Paints.
You can shop the collection online here or in person at our Outpost at The Center of Order and Experimentation.
If you have questions about the palette or our Ghost Ranch experience, please don't hesitate to reach out. Thank you all for your support on our latest launch. We are so excited to get these palettes in your hands.