Cynthia Barlow Marrs SGFA

Portfolio: • Sketchbook Trains and planes

The Elizabeth Line June 2023 by Cynthia Barlow Marrs SGFA, Drawing, Pen and watercolour in A6 sketchbook

The Elizabeth Line June 2023

Fellow passengers caught my eye on the way to and from a great day of drawing at Crystal Palace Park with Urban Sketchers London.

The woman on the right inherited her eyebrows from a man I had started sketching several minutes earlier. The man had leapt up and dashed off the train before I had managed to draw the rest of his face, leaving his eyebrows behind on my page. So when the red haired woman took his place I carried on sketching, reluctant to let a perfectly good pair of eyebrows go to waste.

Sketched on location, watercolour added in the studio.

Original
Pen and watercolour in A6 sketchbook
14.5cm x 20.5cm

12 November 2021 on the Windsor to London line by Cynthia Barlow Marrs SGFA, Drawing, Pen on Paper

12 November 2021 on the Windsor to London line

We were on the way to London to meet friends for lunch and take a second lingering look at the ING Discerning Eye exhibition at the Mall Galleries, where my drawing Papered Over No. 3 is on show, in the very best of company, until 21 November.

I had lost my sketching mojo last year, but I have started carrying a little A6 sketchbook again. Being selected for this prestigious exhibition, and getting to know the work of more than 300 other artists in the show, has made all the difference.

Original
Pen on Paper
20cm x 15cm

Dozing on the Paddington line by Cynthia Barlow Marrs SGFA, Drawing, Fineliner pen, white gel pen and paint marker pen in A6 sketchbook

Dozing on the Paddington line

March 2019. Intrigued by the splendid beard, I extended it into a curly fleece garment for this fellow traveller.

Original
Fineliner pen, white gel pen and paint marker pen in A6 sketchbook
10cm x 10.5cm

Flight to DFW by Cynthia Barlow Marrs SGFA, Drawing, Fineliner pen and brush pens in A6 sketchbook

Flight to DFW

February 2019. The best antidote to boredom on a long flight is a sketchbook.

Original
Fineliner pen and brush pens in A6 sketchbook
20cm x 10.5cm

Home from the shops by Cynthia Barlow Marrs SGFA, Drawing, Pen and ink in A6 sketchbook

Home from the shops

It's not often I have a close encounter with the distinctive eau-de-nil carrier bags of Fortnum and Mason, and as I sketched I tried to envisage the contents. October 2018.

Original
Pen and ink in A6 sketchbook

Waiting at the gate at Kansas City International Airport by Cynthia Barlow Marrs SGFA, Drawing, Pen and ink and watercolour in A5 sketchbook

Waiting at the gate at Kansas City International Airport

Original
Pen and ink and watercolour in A5 sketchbook
10.5cm x 29.5cm

Still pictures from a moving window by Cynthia Barlow Marrs SGFA, Drawing, Ink and water brush in A6 sketchbook

Still pictures from a moving window

October 1 2017: This was my view on the train from London Waterloo to Windsor & Eton Riverside Station. Rather than attempt a single view through the window, I created a composite with elements I glimpsed along the line: a platform here, backs of houses there, a tree, someone rushing for an exit, two different location signs, two women waiting on a bench with a suitcase.

Original
Ink and water brush in A6 sketchbook

Train texter by Cynthia Barlow Marrs SGFA, Drawing, Pen and water brush in A6 sketchbook

Train texter

Original
Pen and water brush in A6 sketchbook

Readers and sleepers on the Paddington line by Cynthia Barlow Marrs SGFA, Drawing, Pen and water brush in sketchbook

Readers and sleepers on the Paddington line

Fellow passengers are among my favourite sketchbook subjects. This is one of eight illustrations in 'Drawing at the Speed of Life', an eight-page feature about my location drawings published in the Summer 2016 issue of Drawing magazine in the USA. The author is British-American artist and writer John A Parks.

Original
Pen and water brush in sketchbook

Flight lighting by Cynthia Barlow Marrs SGFA, Drawing, Pen and ink in A6 sketchbook

Flight lighting

March 2017: I am intrigued by the complex lighting in airplanes, with strong horizontal light coming from small windows.

Original
Pen and ink in A6 sketchbook

Five o'clock shadow by Cynthia Barlow Marrs SGFA, Drawing, Graphite, pen and water brush in A6 sketchbook

Five o'clock shadow

January 2017

Graphite, pen and water brush in A6 sketchbook

Feet up on the Paddington train by Cynthia Barlow Marrs SGFA, Drawing, Pigment liner pen in sketchbook

Feet up on the Paddington train

Original
Pigment liner pen in sketchbook

Driven by Cynthia Barlow Marrs SGFA, Drawing, Pigment liner pen and wash pens in A5 sketchbook

Driven

In 2013 my sister Nancy held her nerve as she steered us down Interstate Highway 35 through two cracking great thunderstorms and a torrential extended downpour. That's my left eye in the rear view mirror, and my mother in the front passenger seat. Just one of so many priceless memories with these two remarkable women.

I would give anything to see my mother and my sister again. May they rest in peace, and may perpetual light shine upon them.

Original
Pigment liner pen and wash pens in A5 sketchbook

Gate 76 by Cynthia Barlow Marrs SGFA, Drawing, Pigment liner pen and wash pens in A5 sketchbook

Gate 76

This drawing is one of four artworks of mine in the book Pen and Ink - Contemporary Artists, Timeless Techniques by James Hobbs (pub. Frances Lincoln, 2016). It's published in the UK and internationally. Thirty-four of us artists are in the book, from ten different countries. Well worth dipping into. http://www.james-hobbs.co.uk/2016/05/who-is-in-pen-and-ink.html

Original
Pigment liner pen and wash pens in A5 sketchbook

Flight by Cynthia Barlow Marrs SGFA, Drawing, Graphite in A5 Moleskine sketchbook

Flight

2012: EasyJet London to Venice, economy class.

Original
Graphite in A5 Moleskine sketchbook