Artists to document rewilding project

A group of artists are visiting a heathland rewilding site to capture its changing flora, fauna and landscape.

Thirty artists from The Society of Wildlife Artists (SWLA) will spend time this year at The Massingham Heath Project in west Norfolk.

Half of the land at the 2,500-acre site (1,000 hectares) is being re-wilded to benefit nature, while half is used for conventional agriculture.

An exhibition and book documenting how the landscape changes throughout the seasons are being produced.

Land owner Oliver Birkbeck said: "They're looking at the health as well as the agricultural landscape, the farm-scape because it is all part of the same story."

He described the artists as "rock stars" and said he was so proud for them to visit the site - which is east of King's Lynn and Sandringham.

"The job of the natural world is to in some way elevate us from the boring imperatives of our daily lives. That's also the job of the artist. So this is a marriage of the two which I think is a really beautiful thing," he added.

Melanie Mascarenhas has a background in science and worked for many years in the NHS before joining the SWLA.

She said: "It's a huge privilege to be here, not just on the heath, which is magnificent , but to be with artists you admire.

"I've been mostly focusing on beetles and it's taken me back to the start of my wildlife drawing journey where I would always focus on invertebrates."

Artist Darren Woodhead praised the light and the way it was falling on the plants and birds.

"You feel like you are going back 100 years in this landscape," he said.

"I've not seen hedgerows like this, big wide hedgerows, big avenues next to them, amazing corridors for wildlife."

The project will culminate in a book to be published in autumn 2026, with text from author, naturalist and Norfolk Wildlife Trust ambassador Nick Acheson.

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