In February 2004 I was commissioned to create a new body of work in response to Clifton Park in Rotherham . This became an investigation into my understanding of the ?real? three-dimensional landscape of the park in its self, and the ?fictional? qualities of two-dimensional painted landscapes.

My intension with this work was to confront the viewer with images that explore and challenge peoples understanding of how we read landscape.

Place in Place is a development of my practice of creating still lives in the public domain, by placing objects into the type of spaces they reflect or portray, in this case landscape panting back into a landscape.

One of the first thing that struck me about Clifton Park was it diversity, this is no doubt due to the variety of uses this land has had over the last 200 years or so. Though there this is little left to suggest this was a landscape designed for hunting game. Despite this landscapes use as a city park there is much which intimates its use as a Manor House ground's including reproduction ruins and the Manor house itself.

I started by photographing the park with the intension of identifying sites, which seemed to have a composition or focal point. These images I hoped would be parallel in theme or composition in paintings acquired for the project. The paintings themselves came from charity shops in Rotherham, Leeds, York and surrounding areas.

After going through my photos of Clifton Park I responded to them by listing the types of landscape painting they made me think of. Though the work started by using the visual similarities between the painting and the places I place them in, it moved towards the more conceptual themes, which started to come out of the work. This approach is demonstrated in the later images, in which I place the paintings in a more confrontational fashion and for reason of subject rather and than composition.

The list in response to my first photos of the site.

Avenues of trees - distance through trees - trench/battlefield ww1 - domed city with sunset - ruined sculpture/buildings - country cottage - gardens /country/formal - grove of trees - walled garden / image into through doorway - manor house - lake or pond reflections of trees - hill sides - Victorian grotto - blossom trees - birds / animals in landscape - dark forest/fallen trees - steps in landscape - monuments in landscape - Moreland/empty space - parkland - path in grove - flowers close up - factory in valley - Island in the middle of lake.

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