About Cynthia Barlow Marrs
I draw inspiration in equal measure from both science and art. These dual interests stem from a life-long fascination with underlying structure, and the irresistible urge to experiment.
Fine art collage
Although formally trained in art, I use techniques developed through trial and error since 1996, when I created my first works of collage.
I colour papers by hand with acrylic glazes, and tear or cut these into shapes that I superimpose on coloured or white backgrounds.
The arc is a fundamental element in my art. I will go to great lengths to achieve an elegant line.
A detailed cut-paper painting can incorporate 100 or more slivers of colour, many of them the same shape. In some paintings the surface may be built up with as many as five layers of cut and torn papers. The idea is to engage the eye with colour, form and flowing line, so that the more one looks at a painting, the more one sees.
It’s slow-motion work. But the aim is to create a sense of movement, in bas-relief, across a canvas. Sometimes I feel like an animator working patiently, frame-by-frame, to create a few seconds’ worth of dynamic motion across a screen. I also think of subliminal perception, and how the hidden or partly visible structure of a painting influences the viewer.
In all my work positive and negative space are designed to complement each other. Composition is crucial. I work on each painting "in the round”, turning it from time to time as I go, to ensure that it holds together as a composition even when viewed upside-down. When I do this, I am also looking for the source of energy in a work of art: it no longer surprises me if a painting, when turned on its side, suddenly comes alive.
The surface and edges of a painting are particularly important to me. In my Edge to Edge series I work across multiple canvases, some of which may be taken apart and put back together in a new composition. A small-scale example of this is Water Meadow. On a bigger scale is Four Seasons (not shown on this site), a four-part painting 2.4m high that was commissioned for a stairwell in a private home. Largest of all is Undercurrents, the five metre-long collage which was exhibited at the River & Rowing Museum in Henley-on-Thames from November 2007 til February 2008, and which formed part of my exhibition Shadow and Light at The West Wing arts centre in Slough from March through May 2008.
I have returned to my art and design roots after living and working in six countries as a landscape architect and environmental planner.
Now a full time artist based in England, I use colour and line to evoke impressions of extraordinary landscapes I have encountered: the humid tropics of southeast Asia, the summer grasslands and frozen winter plains of North America, the fields, rivers and woodlands of the British Isles and continental Europe, and the startling landforms and colours of South Africa.
I live and work a stone's throw from Windsor Castle, and welcome requests to view art work by appointment.
I exhibit regularly in both solo and group shows, and participate each year in the Windsor Fringe Festival and the Windsor Contemporary Art Fair.
A selection of my work is also online at
http://www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk/yourgallery/artist_profile//75140.html
Education
Bachelor of Fine Arts (Painting; Art Education) - University of Oklahoma
Master of Science (Landscape Architecture) - Oklahoma State University
Master of Science (Environmental Management) - University of London, Wye College
