The Fens

Paintings by Fred Ingrams

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The Fens are perhaps the least loved landscape in Britain. For some reason the flatness of this huge area ofEastern England does not capture the heart. It is a landscape that does not fit into the ideal of a rolling “greenand pleasant land”. They are, on the other hand as flat as a billiard table and to most people, featureless andgrim. It is an industrial landscape reclaimed from the sea by Vermuyden and Bedford filled with rows ofregimented crops growing in the black soil. The wind blows from from the east and is cold and nagging. Thepeople who live there appear, like the wind, cold and unfriendly. It is for all these reasons I feel so at homepainting in the Fens.

Most of Britain's rural landscape has been forged over time by farmers and is a totally unnatural manufacturedfacade. This is even more true in the Fens. Almost every inch has been fought for and is still being drained todayvia hundreds of miles of ditches, drains and rivers that criss cross the land. The constant draining and erosioncaused by the wind and the soil oxidising means the land is sinking and will one day be surely reclaimed onceagain by the sea. it is a landscape that feels fragile and brittle that hovers between over draining and flooding,inbetween the sky and the sea.

As I sit and paint here, I am always struck by how few people inhabit this place. I am nearly always alone. Theonly sounds are distant tractors, the calls of lapwings, warblers and the cry of Marsh Harriers. It seems thatpeoples fear of flatness keeps the Fens empty. Flatness also changes everything when you look into the distance.Distances becomes hard to judge and perspective seems altered from the normal making it like no other placein Britain. It is this flatness that protects the Fens and makes it one of the best kept secrets of our landscape. Itis place full of strange stories, myths, strange place names and strange people. It is a landscape that is on theoutside of a world that exists beyond the horizon.

The Fens

Fred Ingrams, 2013

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Grey sky, willowherb, green ditch, 2012Acrylic on panel. 61cm x 61cm

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Grey sky, willowherb and a green ditch 2 - study. 2012Acrylic on panel. 31cm x 31cm

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Grey sky, willowherb and a green ditch - study. 2012Acrylic on panel. 31cm x 31cm

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Grey sky, willowherb and a green ditch - study. 2012Acrylic on panel. 31cm x 31cm

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Grey sky, green ditch, 2012Acrylic on panel. 61cm x 61cm

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Methwold Fen. 2012Acrylic on panel.

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Pumpkins and Cabbages, Silt Road, Nordelph, The Fens 2012Acrylic on panel, 61cms x 61cms

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Sedge Fen Road, Southery, The Fens. 2012Acrylic on panel. 91cm x 91cm

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Barns in the Snow, Feltwell Anchor, The Fens 2013Acrylic on panel, 61cms x 61cms.

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Poppylot in the Snow, The Fens 2013Acrylic on panel, 61cms x 61cms.

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Poppylot, Methwold Fen, 2012Acrylic on panel. 91cm x 91cm

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Poppylot, Methwold Fen, 2012Acrylic on panel. 91cm x 91cm

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Black Ditch Level, The Fens, March 2013Acrylic on panel, 123cms x 61cms.

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Head Fen Drove, looking back to Hundred Foot Drain, The Fens.Acrylic on panel, 91cms x 43cms.

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Prickwillow, The Fens 2011Acrylic on panel. 91.5cm x 91.5cm.

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Methwold Fen. 2012Acrylic on panel. 31cm x 31cm

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Methwold Fen, 2012Acrylic on panel. 31cm x 31cm

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Early Morning, Tilney St Lawrence, 2011Acrylic on panel. 31cm x 31cm

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WWII Pill Box, Lark's Bank, The Fens. 2012Acrylic on panel. 91cm x 91cm

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Spring Wheat, Methwold Fen 2012Acrylic on panel, 91cm x 91cm

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Ten Mile Bank, The Fens 2011Acrylic on panel. 62cm x 31cm

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Ten Mile Bank, The Fens 2011Acrylic on panel. 91cm x 91cm

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Ditch near Pymoor, The Fens. 2010Acrylic on Panel. 61cm x 61cm.

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View from Hundred Foot Drain, The Fens. 2010Acrylic on Panel. 61cm x 61cm.

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Fen Ditton 1997.Acrylic on Panel. 61cm x 40cm.