The work of Julia Crole (b. 1959, London) sees England’s past and present converge in her landscape-centric practice. Her work draws on ideas of time as permeable and layered, with the past intruding on the present and shaping memories, stories, folktales. Ideas of displacement, absence and unexplained presences haunt her work, and are often explored through the prism of neolithic monuments and their surroundings.

The landscapes Crole memoralises are experienced firsthand, observed and recorded in drawings, photography, and film. Records of place stay with her for months, permeating her work with time captured between the layers of paint, wax and collage. The resultant work is a vehicle for the haunting past of these landscapes: in this way, it becomes a metaphor for the rural landscapes she explores. The human figure is also to be found in Crole’s work but remains emblematic - often hard to see, existing outside time, unconfined by space.

Crole’s degree show work comprising three paintings and a moving video work, are inspired by Zennor Quoit, a neolithic monument that sits on the moors of West Cornwall. They’re a celebration of the forgotten lives that have shaped this landscape.

Now based in rural Somerset, she continues to paint and is working to open an artist residency. Her work has been shown at APT Gallery (London), Southwark Park Galleries, and Brixton Library.