Cynthia Barlow Marrs SGFA

The Bowker-Myslek Duo at The Old Court Windsor

21 January 2020: Rosie Bower on the flute and Aleksandra Myslek on the piano -- another brilliant Lunchtime Concert at The Old Court in Windsor.

The Windsor Festival and Live Music Now! are joint hosts of the monthly Lunchtime Concert series at The Old Court.
This image is a collage of two separate sketches of Rosie and Aleksandra as they performed.

I used Tombow brush pens and a fineliner pen in an A4 wire bound sketchbook by Seawhite of Brighton.

Original
Pen on Paper

Ginni Hogarth, Windsor Guitar Night February 2020

At The Old Court Artspace, Windsor

Original
Pen and ink in A4 sketchbook

Dany Hearne, Windsor Guitar Night February 2020

At The Old Court Artspace, Windsor

Original
Pen and ink in A4 sketchbook

Friday Night Music Club at The Old Court Windsor

February 2020: Performing musicians are some of my favourite sketching subjects. So when a new monthly live music event was launched just a two minute walk from my home, how could I resist? In order of appearance: Jess Tuthill, Mark T, The Mantic Muddlers, and Sandy McLelland, all brought to you by Graham Steel Music Company.

Original
Ink in A4 sketchbook

Alkyona Quartet at St Martin-in-the-Fields in London

Lunchtime Concert, 4 February 2020 -- an outstanding performance of Bartók and Bach.

Free Lunchtime Concerts at St Martin-in-the-Fields have been running for 70 years, featuring established professionals and talented newcomers alike.

I made this drawing in an A4 Euro sketchbook by Seawhite with a Tombow brush pen, a water brush and a Faber-Castell fineliner pen.

Original
Pen on Paper
20cm x 26cm

Suntrap at The Old Court, Windsor 2019

Such a treat to sketch Suntrap for the first time here in Windsor at The Old Court. What an evening! I came away with Suntrap's latest CD Northern Lights, and Sue Graves' CD Autumn Gold -- such riches! Thank you Sue, and thank you Suntrap for a class act. I'll be back again with my sketchbook next time you're in town.

Original
Pen and ink in A5 sketchbook
10cm x 28cm

Peter Knight and his fiddle

09 May 2018: Sketching at speed at Norden Farm Centre for the Arts in Maidenhead -- my first live event with the astonishing Peter Knight and Gigspanner. I'll be back for more!

Original
Ink and wash in A6 sketchbook
10cm x 23cm

Peter Knight's Gigspanner at Norden Farm

09 May 2018: Raising the roof at Norden Farm Centre for the Arts in Maidenhead. Peter Knight left Steeleye Span to form his own trio. This was my first live Gigspanner event -- I'll be back for more!

Original
Ink and wash in A6 sketchbook
10cm x 26cm

London launch of 'Flights' by Olga Tokarczuk

May 2017: This was the London launch of Olga Tokarczuk's novel 'Flights' translated by Jennifer Croft and published by Fitzcarraldo Editions. The venue was the Calvert 22 Foundation in Shoreditch. It was an important event for me, as it brought together three important periods of my life: five years living in Warsaw in the early 1990s, my current life in the UK, and my formative years in Tulsa, Oklahoma, first as a teenager and then as a young adult. It's not often I end up in the same room with a peripatetic fellow Tulsan like Jennifer Croft and a renowned Polish author. Their interlocutor was James Henry Woodall. I brought my sketchbook just in case. UPDATE: 'Flights' won the prestigious Man Booker International Prize 2018 for quality fiction in translation -- congratulations Olga and Jennifer!

Pen and ink in A6 sketchbook

London launch of 'Court of Lions' by Jane Johnson

June 2017 at Daunt Books in Marylebone High Street, London

Original
Pen and wash in A6 sketchbook

Robin Ellis launch at Books for Cooks, Notting Hill Gate

January 2014: The afternoon warm-up before the evening party to launch Robin's latest cookery book Healthy Living for Life.

Original
Pigment liner pen in A5 Moleskine sketchbook
25cm x 15cm

Cheltenham College Chapel Choir in Venice

From the archives: In July 2012 we slipped into a church in Venice and found the Cheltenham College Chapel Choir singing. I drew the choir with an A5 Moleskine sketchbook on my lap. 'Il Redentore' is the popular name for the Church of the Most Holy Redeemer. It was built in the 16th century to a design by Andrea Palladio, and is regarded as a masterpiece of Renaissance architecture. It is also home to artworks by Tintoretto, Bassano and Veronese. To discover the choir by chance, and to sketch them in this extraordinary place was magical.
This sketch is one of eight illustrations in 'Drawing at the Speed of Life', an eight-page feature about my location drawings. It was written by artist/writer/educator John A Parks in New York, and published in the Summer 2016 issue of Drawing magazine in the USA.

Original
Graphite in A5 Moleskine sketchbook

View from Row G: Philharmonia Orchestra

October 2012: This drawing won the Arqadia Award for a Highly Commended Work on the Theme of Music at DRAW 13, the Annual Open Exhibition of the Society of Graphic Fine Art in 2013 in London.

I drew the orchestra with my Moleskine sketchbook on my lap: Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto in E minor and Mahler's Symphony no. 5 at the Royal Festival Hall, with Juraj Valčuha as conductor and Renaud Capuçon as soloist.

Original
Graphite in A5 Moleskine sketchbook

The Jubilee String Quartet in recital

2013: The Royal Academy of Music. New Music for String Quartet performed by Tereza Privratska, Alanna Tonetti-Tieppo, Stephanie Edmundson and Lauren Steel

Original
0.5mm mechanical pencil on paper
15cm x 14cm