Through researching and exploring the history of an area I use my visual documentation as a type of study. Impressions are formed by layering and washing away paint applications, developing the landscape in a way which reflects its emotional and physical history. With the use of these varied paint applications and the transferring of both historical and current photographs the landscape begins to
narrate its specific history. The images create small pockets of history where the viewer is able to enter the painting and take a step back in time. By taking these images from their original contexts and appropriating them within my work I am able to depict numerous periods of time within one image. The land is explored through its history; symbolic imagery from this history creates conceptual and narrative readings within the work. A telephone pole may juxtapose with a totem, a cluster of English roses with a patch of stinging nettle, or a church with a hospital – each lends itself to a message.
