The Places We Carry
Abstract Cartography that Explores the Places that Shape Us
Thank you for spending time with these paintings. Places We Carry brings together three chapters of my artistic journey: New Zealand: Back to Life, the Savannah Cartography Series, and a commission inspired by Sevilla, Spain. Together, they explore an idea at the heart of my work: places stay with us. We remember them through color, landscape, people, food, architecture, and ordinary moments. Maps provide the structure, while memory gives them life.
Back to Life: A Journey Through Aotearoa tells the story of my return to my identity as an artist. After years when creating had moved from the center of my life, New Zealand invited me to look closely again. The palette grew from sweet honey and lavender fields, lupine fields, vineyards, mountains, water, and sun-washed landscapes. Inspired by Julius von Haast, Thomas Moran, and Andrew Tischler, I rediscovered artistic curiosity through the landscape. The series became a record of discovering a place while rediscovering the artist within myself.
The Savannah Cartography Series: Mapping the Lowcountry carries that renewed way of seeing home. Its paintings explore the details that give Savannah its identity: waterways, marshes, neighborhoods, wildlife, history, food, and community. These works draw from the colors of River Street Sweets, the birds and landscape of Ossabaw Island, and the pearlescent shells and coastal tones of Pin Point oysters. Each becomes a map shaped by experience and geography.
Sevilla Soul: Streets and Stories approaches place through another person's memories. This personal commission centers on a mother and daughter and their connection to Sevilla. Terracotta recalls its rooftops, orange blossom tree-lined streets, and blue and white details echo the tilework of the Plaza de España. The painting considers how a city can become inseparable from the people we love.
I am Christina Leigh, the artist behind CLR Creations. A nomad at heart, I call Moran, Wyoming, home. The landscapes surrounding Grand Teton and Yellowstone taught me to see maps as more than navigational tools and shaped my artistic language. More than a decade in hospitality and tourism deepened my passion for travel and taught me to experience destinations through their people, cultures, landscapes, and everyday moments.
As you explore, consider your own geography: a city remembered by its colors, a landscape that changed you, or a place connected to someone you love.
Warmly,
Christina Leigh | CLR Creations
Explore the stories behind the paintings. Click each image to learn more.
Ossabaw Island: of Oceans and Oaks
Sweet Savannah: A Candy Colored Love Letter
Pin Point: Pearls and Perseverance
Goldie, Waiheke Island, New Zealand
Little House, Waiheke Island, New Zealand
Tantalus, Waiheke Island, New Zealand
Residue, Auckland CBD, New Zealand
Rotorua, New Zealand: The Living Landscape
Te Puia, New Zealand: The Living Tradition
Wai-O-Tapu, New Zealand: The Sacred Waters
Sevilla Soul: Streets & Stories
Help Bring the Savannah Cartography Series to Life
Become a founding supporter of the Savannah Cartography Series, a new collection of original abstract cartography paintings celebrating the history, ecosystems, and cultural heritage of Savannah, Georgia.
This six-painting collection explores the city's winding waterways, salt marshes, historic neighborhoods, and the stories that have shaped Savannah for nearly three centuries. Beginning with real maps and transformed through layered acrylic textures, each painting reflects the relationship between geography, memory, and identity.
Your contribution directly supports the research, design, and creation of the series, including archival materials, studio time, documentation, and exhibition preparation.
As a thank you for supporting independent art, every contributor will receive behind-the-scenes updates throughout the project, offering a first look at sketches, studio progress, and the stories behind each painting. Higher contribution levels include additional rewards such as limited-edition prints, postcard sets, early access to original works, and collector experiences.
Whether you have called Savannah home for decades, discovered its beauty while traveling, or simply believe in preserving meaningful places through art, your support becomes part of the story behind this collection.
Campaign Goal: $7,900
The Collection
Four original 9 × 12 inch paintings
One original 18 × 24 inch painting
One signature 18 × 36 inch painting of Ossabaw Sound
Together, these works will celebrate Savannah through its rivers, marshes, parks, neighborhoods, and the people whose stories continue to shape the city.
Thank you for helping transform maps into memories and preserving the spirit of Savannah through art.
Please note: This listing represents a crowdfunding contribution to the Savannah Cartography Series. Reward fulfillment and project updates will be provided according to the campaign timeline.
Help Bring the Savannah Cartography Series to Life
Become a founding supporter of the Savannah Cartography Series, a new collection of original abstract cartography paintings celebrating the history, ecosystems, and cultural heritage of Savannah, Georgia.
This six-painting collection explores the city's winding waterways, salt marshes, historic neighborhoods, and the stories that have shaped Savannah for nearly three centuries. Beginning with real maps and transformed through layered acrylic textures, each painting reflects the relationship between geography, memory, and identity.
Your contribution directly supports the research, design, and creation of the series, including archival materials, studio time, documentation, and exhibition preparation.
As a thank you for supporting independent art, every contributor will receive behind-the-scenes updates throughout the project, offering a first look at sketches, studio progress, and the stories behind each painting. Higher contribution levels include additional rewards such as limited-edition prints, postcard sets, early access to original works, and collector experiences.
Whether you have called Savannah home for decades, discovered its beauty while traveling, or simply believe in preserving meaningful places through art, your support becomes part of the story behind this collection.
Campaign Goal: $7,900
News & Press
Christina Leigh Explores the Places That Shape Us in “Places We Carry”
Solo exhibition at Georgia Southern University brings together abstract cartography, landscape, memory, travel, and the evolving Savannah Cartography Series.
Contemporary artist Christina Leigh, the artist behind CLR Creations, presents “Places We Carry,” a solo exhibition exploring how landscapes, cities, and shared experiences become part of our personal stories. Through abstract cartography, layered textures, fluid color, and geographic detail, Christina transforms maps into records of memory, culture, and connection. Featuring works inspired by destinations near and far, including the developing Savannah Cartography Series, the exhibition invites viewers to consider the places they have encountered, the stories held within them, and what we continue to carry long after we leave.
Read More
Contact the Artist
Your Place. Your Story. Reserve Your Commission.
Commission an original painting of a place that has become part of your life.
Personal Cartography transforms meaningful geography into abstract, map-inspired artwork. A childhood neighborhood. The city where you met. A coastline returned to each summer. A honeymoon destination. A family property. A route traveled repeatedly. Or several places connected across years.
Each commission begins with the geography itself, then moves beyond the map. I research the location and consider its roads, waterways, boundaries, architecture, landscape, history, and other details that give the place its character. Through color, texture, line, and abstraction, that geography becomes something personal.
The finished painting is not intended to reproduce a conventional map. It is an interpretation of where your life unfolded and what remains of that place in memory.
Materials
Choose from:
Archival Oil Paper: An intimate, heavyweight oil-painting surface intended for professional framing.
Archival ACM Panel: A smooth, rigid and highly stable surface with a contemporary presentation.
Oil-Primed Linen: A traditional fine-art surface with subtle texture, particularly suited to expressive brushwork.
Birchwood Panel: A substantial rigid surface with a warm, tactile character.
Oil or acrylic paint is selected according to the surface and desired character of the painting. Available materials vary by size.
Sizes
Small: 9" × 12" to 11" × 14"
An intimate study of one meaningful place. Ideal for a neighborhood, property, coastline, landmark, or destinatio.
Medium: 12" × 18" to 18" × 24"
Offers more room for geographic detail, interconnected landmarks, waterways, roads, and the character of the surrounding landscape.
Large: 24" × 30" to 30" × 40"
Designed for more expansive compositions, complex geography, multiple connected locations, or a place explored through greater depth and detail.
Gallery: 36" × 36"+
Large-scale statement works created for significant personal narratives, expansive geography, and residential, hospitality, or commercial spaces.
Pricing & Consultation
The listed price reflects a 50% deposit toward your commission. Final pricing is based on the selected size, material, and composition and will be confirmed during your consultation before the commission agreement is signed.
Multiple subjects, complex settings, extensive detail, specialty materials, or significant reconstruction from several photographs may require an additional fee.
Any adjustment is discussed and approved before your commission agreement is signed and before painting begins. You may approve the revised price, adjust the concept to remain within your original budget, or request a refund before signing the agreement.
How It Works
1. Reserve — Select your size, material, and payment option.
2. Share — Send several high-resolution photographs and tell me about the people and moment you would like preserved.
3. Consult — Within 24–48 hours, I will reach out to begin the collaboration process. We will discuss setting, color, atmosphere, materials, and meaningful details.
4. Approve — I’ll confirm the final scope, price, and timeline. Your commission begins after the agreement is signed.
5. Create — Your cartography is painted individually by hand, with progress images shared at key stages.
6. Deliver — Once complete and sufficiently cured, your painting is carefully prepared for delivery.
Timeline
Allow approximately 10–12 weeks from signing the commission agreement, including approximately 10–12 weeks for painting and 2–8 business days for shipping.
Oil paintings may require additional drying time. Larger or more complex commissions may require longer. For weddings, anniversaries, holidays, or other time-sensitive gifts, please reserve early.
Photography
Clients are responsible for providing photographs they own or have permission to use. Professional wedding, engagement, or newborn photography may require permission from the photographer.
Shipping
Small and medium works are generally shipped flat and protected. Large works may require custom crating, freight, white-glove delivery, or installation. Additional delivery costs are quoted when applicable.
Commission Policy
Because each landscape is made specifically for you, commissions cannot be returned or exchanged once the agreement has been signed and painting has begun.
Before signing, you may adjust the scope, approve any price adjustment, or request a refund.
Reserve Your Personal Cartography
Some places become more than coordinates on a map. They hold the roads we traveled, the landscapes we remember, and the moments that unfolded there. A Personal Cartography commission transforms that geography into an original work of art, preserving a place that has become part of your story.
Frame not included. Shipping, specialty crating, and installation may be quoted separately when applicable.
Exhibition: The Places We Carry
Artist: Christina Leigh | CLR Creations
Opening Date: September 1, 2026
Closing Date: November 1, 2026
Hours: Monday - Friday, 8AM - 5PM
Admission: Free
Venue: Georgia Southern University, Armstrong Campus, Learning Commons
Address:11935 Abercorn Street, Savannah, GA 31419
Exhibition Details
About the Artist
Christina Leigh is the artist behind CLR Creations, an independent art practice centered on abstract cartography and the relationship between travel, place, memory, and identity.
Her work reimagines maps as records of lived experience. Through layered painting, abstraction, geographic forms, texture, color, and research, Christina explores how landscapes and destinations become connected to personal and collective narratives. Her artistic language is informed by a lifelong relationship with travel and more than a decade of experience in hospitality and tourism. From the landscapes surrounding Grand Teton and Yellowstone to the waterways, neighborhoods, and cultural histories of coastal Georgia, her work invites viewers to consider not simply where they have been, but what those places have left behind.
About the Venue
The Learning Commons at Georgia Southern University's Armstrong Campus is a multidisciplinary learning environment supporting student learning, collaboration, technology, programming, and community engagement. It is located at 11935 Abercorn Street in Savannah, Georgia.