Support: The support is a 1 x 1 twill-weave, processed, linen canvas stretched over an "American Type", double-bevel-faced, miter-cut ended, mortise-and-tenon joined, keyable softwood, commercial stretcher bar, pre-cut to the whole inch, 1 ¾" wide x ¾" thick in 20" and 16" sized lengths. The canvas is stretched with the warps in the horizontal position and tacked using blued steel tacks spaced evenly apart, 2" to 3" with regularity. The canvas has 44 warp threads per inch and 50 weft (twill weave) threads per inch. Eight custom basswood keys are secured at the corners.

Ground or Support Preparation: The processed linen canvas has a commercially applied primer consisting of 2PbCO3•Pb(OH)2 and some CoCO3 in oil, characterized using x-ray fluorescence spectroscopy at 15kV and 40kV and 28.8 and 3.8 µA under full vacuum.

Design Layers: The twill-texture of the canvas dominates the appearance of the surface except in isolated areas where thickly-textured points obscure the twill pattern below. The points have been applied over charcoal/graphite line under-drawing in single layers using the canvas primer as a reflective surface. The artist has prepared both her higher value colors and many burnt umber passages so that they have a slightly stiff, paste-like consistency, which is slightly thicker than the background points. These hold brush texture as a compositional and textural effect. Viridian green passages in the foreground, by contrast, were prepared more thinly with more fluid, cream consistencies and allowed to flow and level into the texture of the canvas. O'Keeffe applies paint at the margins of forms using nearly continuous, curvilinear brush strokes with the brush positioned at a low angle to the canvas, resulting in a continuous, raised ridge of paint at the edge of each form. Surrounding brushwork is generally parallel to the linear directions defined by these edges, with no underlying or subsequent brushwork moving perpendicular to the linear form. Occasionally, adjacent forms do not overlap, and the artist has chosen to allow a "holiday" of unpainted, primed canvas to be a visible detail in the composition, with graphite underdrawing residues sometimes visible. The artist achieves changes in value and hue using abutted, stepped transitions of paint applied wet-into-dry with a minimum of blending. In some areas, the artist has subsequently flattened stiff paint by waiting for the paint to become set, but plastic, and flattening the paint using a dry brush.

Surface Coating: Either O'Keeffe or one of her conservators (Caroline Keck or Felrath Hines) thinly sprayed clear butyl methacrylate. There is generalized dust and debris embedded in the varnish with occasional inclusions of amber-yellowed, translucent particles, consistent with Keck's varnishes from 1948-1953.

Framing, Backing, and Hanging Hardware: Work is installed in a micro-environmentally controlled Georgia O'Keeffe/George Of-designed, "clam shell" profile, metal leaf frame with a gasketed secondary backing basswood strainer and gasketed Optium glazing and Rhapid gel RH buffering sheets behind Tyvek dust covers in the secondary backing strainer and activated charcoal-zeolite corrugated board VOC scavenger. Glazed with non-reflective, conductive Optium acrylic glazing.

All of the paints and structures are secure and stable. The work is moderately taut and planar, with the exception of intermittent but nearly continuous stretcher-bar creases and cracks at the inside of the top stretcher rail and all four recto stretcher bar lips.

In 2013, two new hairline cracks were observed, one at approximately 15" from the left and 2 ½" from the top, and the other located at 19" from the left and 4 ¼" down from the top. These were treated and appear to remain stable.

There are two small losses at the raised ridges of paint adjacent to and to the left of the upper center diagonal crack. These losses were noted in the 2012 examination. Losses and cracks were previously consolidated with Bedacryl 22X in xylenes, filled with gesso in rabbit-skin glue, and retouched with AYAB and dry powder pigments (1997).

Cracks along the stretcher edge and inner lip have been slightly filled using Flugger fine surface acrylic spackle with Golden brand Acrylic Medium GAC 100 added for flexibility and adhesion. These fills, executed in 2011 and 2012, were intended to help differentiate between existing crack dimensions and the development of crack extensions during travel.

There is a scratch 10 ½" down from the top edge and 7 inches in from the left edge. This hairline scratch has associated small pinpoint flakes and does not appear varnished over, indicating that it is recent damage. This area was consolidated and repaired in 2015. The edges of forms are often defined by raised linear brushwork at the margins of the forms. These sometimes fracture and flake as a result of canvas deflection/excursion in transit and should be monitored for cracks and losses after transit. The work is clean and free of dust. All accretions have been previously removed. Brush hairs, dried pallet bits, and other studio inclusions are occasionally visible on the design surface but should not be confused with damage or deterioration.

The work has developed a broad, generalized distribution of very fine basic lead carbonate (2PbCO3-Pb(OH)2) micro­protrusions that appear under some magnification as small granular surface inclusions in the paints. They are visible in the primed canvas along the tacking edge where there is no paint. They are more numerous and larger in Pb and Fe-containing paints. The work has been framed in a sealed, gasketed, and RH-buffered framing, glazing, and backing system to help prevent moisture migration through the canvas and activation-migration of the soap granules toward the design surface.