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Her Eyes Healed Her Ears Whole

Oh, yes,
over the hills,
through the woods.
My favorite
my safest
place to be.
CKS

Camping and being out in the landscape is one of my favorite things to do and go.

I miss it. I don’t count myself out from being able to return to camping, it is just a not now activity.

But, I live in a rural place and I am surrounded by beauty, so it is kind of like camping all the time.

This little mountain landscape is about being able to quiet the restless negative self thoughts by sitting and melding into the place before me, and allowing it to bring me into the present, being in the moment.

paint much love, always,
CKS
a.k.a. This Crooked Little Flower

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Celebrate Life

i dare to love the life
i live.
messy and unkempt.

i dare to love what I do not know
and breathe this 
dirty path.

my sandals rest beside  
my feet.
for she is Holy;
this ground so solid
between my toes.

i dare to walk by
candlelight, and
love what I do
not know.

breathe this dirty path.
messy and unkempt.
breathe this dirty path.

sandals resting;
beside my dirty feet.
CKS

thank you to everyone for your continued support and encouragement

We have decided to keep the Celebrate Life Sale going until the end of the year! Enjoy!

Celebrate Life

enjoy this sale as it continues until the end of 2023

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Grand Wash Cliffs

Storms of afternoon color
Paint across your face.
Desert beauty
Time study
Love in the likeness
of grace.
CKS

L642

Grand Wash Cliffs
Meadview, Arizona
Family
Back side of the Grand Canyon


The Grand Wash Cliffs exit the Grand Canyon, where the Colorado River enters Lake Mead. They are the southwestern perimeter, of the Colorado Plateau (source, Wikipedia).  And, I love them!  The North Rim of the Grand Canyon is particular beautiful and less traveled.  The South Rim of the Grand Canyon is what I would call the traditional access; with far more population and tourists visiting.

According to the National Park Website this land has been continually inhabited for at least 12,000 years. 

Afternoons are particularly romantic.  The sun casts dazzling light across the cliffs and inch by inch, brilliant colors illuminate before you.  Moments filled with energetic stillness of awe and desire.

Here I catch a storm rolling in with light splash-dazing the rock-cliff.  This tiny painting is hardly larger than a postage stamp.  Holding it in your hand, it radiates the grace and peace of place.  Dirt beneath your feet, Joshua Trees to your left and to your right; wide sky blanketing above.

paint much love, always,
Connie Karleta Sales
a.k.a. This Crooked Little Flower


*Grand Wash Cliffs, Meadview, Arizona, 3/4″ x 1″, ink, pigment, charcoal, graphite, paper, ©CKS

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Heal Me Open

Rise through darkness;
Sun glittering amid her trees.
Awake. Alive.
Revisiting the feeling of being.

CKS

What does it take to rise out of the darkness? What does it even look like? How do we do it? How do we cope? How do we keep moving forward?

Ethereal layers of thin, temporary places. Each giving us support and adding that little bit of stability and security in times of chaos and unknown.

This is a constant theme in my meditations, prayers, and reflections. I use my art to help me find those thin layers creating a life more stable.

I am excited these 2 paintings from my on going Heal Me Open portrait series are included in the group show “Out of Darkness into the Light” at dk Gallery in Marietta, GA the month of October.

If you are in the area I hope you stop by and see the show.

paint much love, always,
Connie Karleta Sales
a.k.a. This Crooked Little Flower

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Heavy or Not

lay down your burdens
lighten with the sky
dawn a new day
no matter what
they say.
CKS

not gonna lie, its been a rough road lately. still not feeling all that well.

a lot of resting and sleeping, more resting, more sleeping. . . and being frustrated and a bit lost. allowing depression to grasp at me. allowing fear to have a little taste of me too.

I recently found my old ipod and it has my favorite Yoga Nidra practice on it. I had allowed this practice to fall off. It is back in my life.

It feels good. It helps. It helps ease my soul. and my mantra or Sankalpa (short positive statement of intention) is:

I give myself permission to accept my body just as it is.

How do you feel about your body? Do you accept yourself? Do you struggle with judging yourself? I wish for us all to find peace in acceptance.

paint much love, always,
CKS
a.k.a. This Crooked Little Flower

Celebrate Life Sale Still Happening

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Within the Emptiness

Holy Darkness
River of unbroken rigidity.
Resonate the overcast softness;
Mitigate my distress.
CKS

L123

Plains in the middle
of nowhere;
I simply stopped;
to paint my words.


Always armed with supplies, I always enjoy simply driving out on the back roads and finding what I find.  Sometimes, like here, I simply am struck by the simplicity perfectly explaining my thought process.

This is in the middle of nowhere.  I cannot remember what state, or location.  I do remember firing up my little personal stove, making a cup of coffee, and a cup of soup.  I put on my finger-less gloves and settled in the absorption of the moment.

A vast plain with one lone tree in the distance, seemed perfectly content, so I asked it why and how.

paint much love, always,
Connie Karleta Sales
a.k.a. This Crooked Little Flower


*Within the Emptiness, 1″ x 3.5″ ink, graphite, pastel, paper, ©CKS

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Aspen Love

Memento of two;
lovers’ whispers;
gentle delighting.
CKS

L145

Aspen grove
Intimate moment
Spring Morning


I believe this tiny painting is the foreshadow of great love.

Aspens grow in colonies from a single seed.  Often they are seen as evidence of ancient woodlands, because their root systems can live for thousands of years.  Another beautiful fact; Aspen colonies are able to survive forest fires, because their root systems are below the heat of the fires.

Caught in awe one day walking among Aspens in Idaho, I felt the weight of the many as the morning light danced across these two trees; catching their kiss in conversation, they allowed me in, and so I danced too.

Here I was feeling family; generational love; grounded through life’s heat in the good and the difficult.

paint much love, always,
Connie Karleta Sales
a.k.a. This Crooked Little Flower


*Aspen Love, 2″ x 1 1/4″, ink, acrylic, pastel, graphite, charcoal, cotton, ©CKS

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Purple, the poetic landscape

musical color
smelling the cold
a secret-wise in repose
CKS

L776

smell of rain
purple mountains
big sky


I love the big sky.  I love the open road.  I love sinking into the smell of rain.

When the rain comes, I am careful not to tread.  Trails are a gift, and if we walk on them in the mud we damage the terrain.

The trails widen and erode; leaving our scars behind.  Here I remain with faraway eyes and sweet eternity’s scent.

paint much love, always,
Connie Karleta Sales
a.k.a. This Crooked Little Flower

*Purple, The Poetic Landscape – mixed media on paper, 2″ x 1.75″, CKS – available in CLFStudio Shop

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The Human Road

Light smiled.
With herself, 
She laughed.

She stood still;
And danced
The journey

Come true.
CKS

L752

Kathryn Albertson Park
Boise Sesquicentennial
in search of the iconic
dancing with friends.


What a weekend this was!  Boise was celebrating 150 years!  The city decided to have a Plein-air Art Competition.  I am a pretty solitary soul, however this weekend I accepted invitation to traipse  Boise in search of the iconic with art friends.

What fun!  This particular day as the rest of my crew went further into the large park, I was taken back by the entrance.

It was as if I was seeing it for the first time.  How the light danced across the panoramic scene.  Here in this tiny painting, I played and bathed in  a smile.  Knowing just how human this park was that day.

paint much love, always,
Connie Karleta Sales
a.k.a. This Crooked Little Flower


*Kathryn Albertson Park, Boise, Idaho, 1 1/4″ x 4 1/4″, graphite, ink, charcoal, paper, ©CKS

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Succor Creek

Desert Cliffs
with Sun-drenched festivals
of light cascading.
CKS

L352

Spring View
Cliffs at Succor Creek
Oregon


My husband introduced me to Succor Creek and Leslie’s Gulch, Oregon.  It is the High Desert landscape located not far from the Idaho border.

If you time it just right, you will see the desert flowers blooming in the spring before the sandy dry colors of yellow overwhelm the landscape.

Here, the flowers are not yet in bloom.  The desert she is preparing.  It was a lovely brisk day with green sprinkled within the dance of sun and cliffs.

paint much love, always,
Connie Karleta Sales
a.k.a. This Crooked Little Flower


*Succor Creek, Oregon, 1 1/4″ x 3 1/8″, ink, pastel, graphite, paper, ©CKS