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.
New Zealand: Back to Life 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 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.
A hand-painted map of a place that became part of your story.
CLR Creations accepts a limited number of Abstract Cartography commissions each year for collectors, families, hospitality spaces, and commercial interiors.
Each painting begins with a real place. It may be the city where you met, the coastline you return to every summer, the destination of a meaningful journey, your childhood home, a wedding location, or a landscape that simply feels like yours.
From that geography, I create an original abstract painting that explores not only where the place is, but what it means to you.
The Artwork
Every CLR Creations commission is 100% hand-painted from a blank surface using professional oil or acrylic paints. No printing, digital painting, or photocopying process is used in the finished artwork.
Your painting may incorporate recognizable elements of the location, including coastlines, waterways, roads, neighborhoods, topography, landmarks, or coordinates. These geographic elements become the structure for layers of color, texture, movement, and material inspired by your experience of the place.
The finished work exists somewhere between map, landscape, and memory.
Your Story Shapes the Painting
The commission process begins with conversation.
Along with the location, I want to understand what happened there and what you remember about it. A particular sunset may influence the palette. The blue of the water from a favorite trip may move through the composition. Local plants, architecture, food, history, geology, or cultural traditions may inspire color and texture. A road traveled repeatedly may become an important line within the painting.
For commercial and hospitality commissions, the process can also explore the history, landscape, architecture, community, and identity surrounding the property.
Research is an important part of my practice. Maps, historical references, ecology, photographs, and stories help me understand the character of a location before it is translated into paint.
Throughout the process, you are invited into key moments of collaboration. References and progress images help guide the work while leaving room for artistic interpretation, intuition, and the natural response of the materials.
Materials
Choose from:
Cotton Canvas
Linen Canvas
Birchwood Panel
Each painting is created using professional, archival-quality materials selected for longevity.
Oil or acrylic paint may be used depending upon the desired surface, scale, layering, and character of the commission.
Sizes
Small
9" × 12" to 11" × 14"
An intimate study of a meaningful location, ideal for a favorite destination, hometown, honeymoon, or personal milestone.
Medium
12" × 18" to 18" × 24"
Offers greater space for geographic detail, layered storytelling, and the relationship between landscape and memory.
Large
24" × 30" to 30" × 40"
A statement piece designed to hold a more expansive geography and become a focal point within a home or interior.
Gallery
36" × 36" or larger
Large-scale cartography created for collectors, hospitality environments, commercial interiors, and spaces where the artwork can become part of the architecture itself.
Reserve Your Commission
This listing reserves a place on the CLR Creations commission calendar. It does not represent the full purchase price of the finished painting.
Your reservation begins the collaborative process and is applied toward the final cost of your artwork.
After reserving, you will be invited to share the location you would like painted along with the memories, colors, experiences, photographs, and details that make it meaningful to you.
What Happens Next
1. Reserve your commission.
Secure a place on my painting calendar.
2. Tell me about your place.
Within 24–48 hours, I will reach out to begin the collaboration. You may provide an address, city, state, country, coordinates, map, or another geographic reference.
3. Share the story behind it.
We will discuss your connection to the location, meaningful experiences, preferred colors, landscape features, memories, and any details you would like considered.
4. Establish the artwork.
Together, we will determine the final size, surface, composition, palette, and artistic direction. Final pricing will be confirmed according to the scope of the commission.
5. Your painting begins.
Once the commission details are approved and the required payment is received, I will begin translating your place into an original work of art.
Timeline
Most commissions take approximately 6–8 weeks from execution to delivery.
Painting Time: Approximately 6–7 weeks
Shipping Time: Approximately 2–8 business days
Timelines may vary according to scale, complexity, materials, research requirements, drying time, and the overall scope of the commission.
Large-scale, gallery, hospitality, and commercial projects may require an extended production schedule.
Production & Shipping
Delivery is determined by the size, surface, destination, and installation requirements of the finished artwork.
Small and medium works are generally shipped flat and fully protected.
Larger works on flexible surfaces, including cotton and linen canvas, may be shipped rolled when scale or destination requires it. Final stretching or mounting can then be completed by a professional framer or installer upon arrival.
Birchwood panels are shipped flat with rigid protection. Large-scale panels and architectural works may require custom crating, freight shipping, white-glove delivery, or coordinated installation.
All delivery methods are selected with the protection and long-term preservation of the artwork in mind.
Commission Policy
Every commissioned painting is individually created for the collector. Because of the personalized nature of the work, commissioned artwork is final sale and cannot be returned or exchanged.
Collaboration is an important part of my process. Before painting begins, we will establish the location, scale, surface, palette, and overall artistic direction of the piece. Progress updates are shared at key stages so you can experience the work as it develops.
The final artwork remains an original CLR Creations interpretation of your location and story. Natural variations in color, texture, mark-making, and abstraction are part of what makes each painting unique.
Begin With a Place
Think of somewhere that has stayed with you.
A city you once called home. A coastline you return to each year. The place where you fell in love. A journey that changed you. A landscape connected to your family. A destination that still feels vivid years later.
Reserve your Abstract Cartography commission and transform the geography of a meaningful place into an original painting created around your story.
[Frame not included]
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.