Highcliffe Weeper – Cyanotype Prin

I sometimes forget just how beautiful weeping silver birch trees are. In winter, they don’t fare so well in the beauty stakes — all stick and no glamour — like overgrown houseplants in need of water and a bit of emotional support. But come spring, they really come into their own. Their fresh foliage looks like a 1920s bob haircut that’s wandered out of Woodstock with a peace sign and a badly rolled reefer.

You’ll find this particular silver birch just opposite the entrance to Highcliffe Castle in Dorset, standing proudly beside a block of 1970s low-rise flats. I imagine the original architect sketching it in — a young tree beside a boxy three-storey with a Ford Cortina parked out front. The Cortina may be long gone, but the tree remains — now preserved here in Prussian blue.

Each cyanotype is handmade using a 19th-century photographic process, exposed by sunlight onto watercolour paper. The result is a vivid, one-off print with beautiful organic edges and subtle tonal variations — no two are exactly alike.

Details:

– Original handmade cyanotype print

– Printed on A4 (21cm x 29.7cm) 300gsm cold-pressed watercolour paper

– Signed on the front

– Unframed (fits standard A4 frame)

– Ships flat in protective packaging