Collage of a Breckland Pine Line

Breckland is a district of East Anglia stretching across the Norfolk & Suffolk border. It has a very distinctive landscape. Sandy soils and a dry climate make the area very arid by British standards. Once upon a time, mobile sand dunes use to blow across landscape, covering heaths and roads.

Since mediaeval times, the region has been too harsh for agriculture. As a result, wealthy landowners employed warreners to keep rabbits. This kept the healthland close-cropped (suitable for some rare ground nesting birds, incidentally).

In modern times came a great push for land improvement. Among the adjustments, was the planting of long lines of hedgerows to prevent wind-blown sandy soils from covering the plants. Broadleaf species did not thrive in such dry ground. The native Scots Pine was used instead.

Once economic depression brought decline in agriculture and a return to warrening, these damaged pines were left, neglected. For 200 years, they have been allowed to grow into these these very distinctive, distorted, even alien-looking trees reaching across the landscape in regimented lines.

Later, irrigation brought a return to agriculture and loss of 'natural' habitat, made more severe by the introduction of a large Forestry Commission estate with dense groves of Corsican Pine.

For this project, I have used torn paper pieces to construct a collage, but first, I made up a sheet of paper with the choice of colours I intended to use, using acrylic paints...

Before the paint dried, and rather by a happy-accident, I folded the sheet. The light colours printed across the dark giving another layer of texture and added interest...

Next, once the paint dried, it was to cut and torn-up into many small pieces...

On a fresh sheet of paper, I plotted out the image from the photograph above, which I had taken 'in the field', (see above). This line of pines is visible from the A11 main truck road through the county of Norfolk, England, near Thetford.

Using this rough guide, I then proceeded to glue the torn pieces and assemble the image like a jigsaw puzzle eventually coming up with the finished result you see here...

In fact, it was not as easy as I imaged it to be. It is very hard to see the image emerge from the pieces until near the end. Even then, you have to stand back a long way, or use a mirror. Somehow it remains not very obvious! I struck on the idea of using my iPad to photograph it. As here, you then see a very reduced image (the original is about A3 in size). It seems obvious now! A really strong graphic image. I am pleased with it. The reduced scale really helped.