Lawrence artist Linda Sallee has a passion for nature that flows from her soul and is interpreted with her weathered hands.

Growing up on her parents’ wheat farm in Penalosa, Sallee learned a sense of frugality from her family.

“We lived with the notion that it was best to be conservative with your imprint on nature and resourceful with what Mother Nature had provided,” she recalls.

This sentiment is obvious in Sallee’s artwork, most of which is created with the intention of using open sky and quiet garden corners as backdrops to enhance her artistic expressions. Sallee is among a growing number of artists who have begun to realize that outdoor art is a lucrative niche, as people are becoming increasingly fascinated with creating outdoor rooms and extending the home to areas where a canopy of trees makes a sufficient ceiling.

Sallee however, is not jumping on any bandwagons. She just can’t find a muse that entices her quite like the great outdoors.

“As a child, I was always outside,” she says. “I don’t look for spirituality in a church or temple; I look to nature. That is my church.”

Almost all of Sallee’s artwork uses recycled, reclaimed and found objects. She feels this reflects her respect for nature and keeps her art more humanistic. Whatever the reasoning, she creates pieces that reflect her clients.

Evan Williams, a longtime fan of Sallee’s artwork, says she does a great job of mulling over a project and making it personal for the buyer.

“She can create for anyone, but she seems to really look at the space and put plenty of thought into it,” Williams says. “You can really feel yourself in her artwork.”

In her self self-effacing way, Sallee shuffles her feet, redirects the conversation to others and gives accolades to her loyal client base. She says she’s done very few shows and that most all of her artwork has been commissioned through word of mouth.

“A writer from Better Homes and Gardens came to view one of my client’s homes. But instead of concentrating just on that, she began to comment excitedly on all of the outdoor artwork,” Sallee says. “It was very flattering and helped me in solidifying my talents in my own mind.”

Not only has Sallee molded outdoor benches, trellises, mirrors, chairs, masks and more, but she also built her entire country home with her own hands.

“It is a tall, two-story barn that just had the exterior posts and beams on a cement slab,” she says. “I did all of the gas lines, the interior plumbing. I used recycled doors and windows. For quite a while I was even bathing outdoors. Little hummingbirds would flit by as I’d lather up.”

Always up for a good laugh, Sallee’s giggles can be heard from across a busy restaurant. She keeps her white hair in a bob with pageboy bangs and sports a faded jean jacket with an “I voted” sticker still stuck on the lapel from the midterm elections more than a month ago. She has a simple style that reflects her “Jill of all trades” job description, as she never knows if she’ll be crawling around in an attic or fixing a fence that needs mending.

Sallee’s first artistic endeavor happened by chance.

“Years ago I went to Perry, Kansas, to collect some firewood. There was this beautiful walnut, and I thought, ‘I cannot burn this, so I made my first bench,'” she says. “Most of my work has been trial and error. I get an idea, and it’s my way to express myself like any artist. I really just want to work with my hands.”

And that she does, often completely unprovoked.

Evan Williams has an “amazing limestone coffee table” next to her barn that she loves.

“The legs are bent to one side, and it is just teetering there,” she says. “Linda just made that one day with no direction. She just created it for my space, and it is my favorite of her pieces that I own.”

Sallee calls her artist business “El Farmer’s Daughter,” explaining that the name is an ode to her rural upbringing and the fact that she likes “anything Spanish.”

When asked why she adds art to her already overflowing plate of work, she says it’s about passion.

“Everyone wants passion, and it excites me,” she says. “When I know I’ve hit upon something, I start a piece and I just don’t want to stop. It has taught me a lot about me. It reflects my life and who I am.

“I’m not patient or a perfectionist. I like to make things like I see them in nature.”