Second World War beach defences transformed into giant art work

Second World War anti-tank sea defences designed to repel a Nazi invasion were temporarily transformed into a giant artwork showing people rock climbing.Beach artist Claire Eason spent four hours painstakingly carving the 100ft-long creation using a garden rake before her efforts were washed away by the tide.She created the eye-catching artwork after stumbling across anti-tank defences which were placed on Beadnell Bay, in Northumberland, more than 75 years ago.The giant concrete blocks were installed to halt a German invasion during the Second World War and remain visible today.Claire transformed the cubes into an artwork displaying a more peaceful pursuit of abseiling while visiting the beach on Wednesday (19/2).The retired GP said: "I wanted to showcase how beautiful the coast is around here and thought it would be fun to use the blocks for something new. "I knew these anti-tank cubes were still visible and wanted to turn them into something which showed a more peaceful activity."The idea of climbers just came into my head and I liked the idea of them cooperating with each other to enjoy the natural landscape. "I first printed off an aerial image and made a drawing on top roughly how big I wanted it to look. "To draw it in the sand I used a standard garden rake with a small head of about six inches wide. "The planning took an-hour-and-a-half and the drawing took another two-and-a-half hours which was quite tricky. "There was a bit of trial and error because it was hard to get the bottom man at the right angle. "I made an outline first before I was able to fill it in. "Then I sent up a drone to 50 metres to get the perspective to take a picture. "I had to choose the right time and conditions.

The tide had to be high and ideally just going out so the sand was damp."

Second World War anti-tank sea defences designed to repel a Nazi invasion were temporarily transformed into a giant artwork showing people rock climbing.Beach artist Claire Eason spent four hours painstakingly carving the 100ft-long creation using a garden rake before her efforts were washed away by the tide.She created the eye-catching artwork after stumbling across anti-tank defences which were placed on Beadnell Bay, in Northumberland, more than 75 years ago.The giant concrete blocks were installed to halt a German invasion during the Second World War and remain visible today.Claire transformed the cubes into an artwork displaying a more peaceful pursuit of abseiling while visiting the beach on Wednesday (19/2).The retired GP said: "I wanted to showcase how beautiful the coast is around here and thought it would be fun to use the blocks for something new.

"I knew these anti-tank cubes were still visible and wanted to turn them into something which showed a more peaceful activity."The idea of climbers just came into my head and I liked the idea of them cooperating with each other to enjoy the natural landscape.

"I first printed off an aerial image and made a drawing on top roughly how big I wanted it to look.

"To draw it in the sand I used a standard garden rake with a small head of about six inches wide.

"The planning took an-hour-and-a-half and the drawing took another two-and-a-half hours which was quite tricky.

"There was a bit of trial and error because it was hard to get the bottom man at the right angle.

"I made an outline first before I was able to fill it in.

"Then I sent up a drone to 50 metres to get the perspective to take a picture.

"I had to choose the right time and conditions.

The tide had to be high and ideally just going out so the sand was damp."