“Long-legged jackrabbits hopped in front of her as she walked. Visiting the canyons at dawn, she watched as deep blacks gave way to midnight blues, violet bleached to dove gray, and, at the distant edge of the canyon, subtle arcs of milky, fleshy white sky were revealed . . . 'It is absurd the way I love this country,' she said. 'I am loving the plains more than ever it seems—and the SKY.’”

-Hunter Drohojowska-Philp, In Full Bloom: The Art and Life of Georgia O'Keeffe, 2005

Hill, Stream and Moon belongs to a series of abstract watercolors that Georgia O'Keeffe completed in Canyon, Texas, approximately 20 miles west of Amarillo where she joined the faculty of West Texas A&M in 1916. The colorful, dynamic works she completed there, which walk the line between complete abstraction and a burgeoning initiative to capture her deep connection to the natural world, mark a turning point in O'Keeffe's career and her growing acclaim as a leading practitioner of modernist art in America. Like the watercolors she produced of this period, Hill, Stream and Moon is profoundly minimal in its connection to the vast, empty spaces of the Texas Panhandle where she lived from 1916-1918. With the sparest of energy, O’Keeffe defines the contours of the hills, the elegance of the giant open sky, and the sliver of moon barely peeking out. Hill, Stream and Moon stands out as a striking and innovative display of her affection for the Texas landscape, and among the signal works of her young career that gave rise to the emergence of her own artistic voice.