Cynthia Barlow Marrs

ASGFA

Private collections

Latest work

Land and water

About Cynthia Barlow Marrs

The Fishbone Tree

From the Lunar series.

Original
Graphite pencil on paper
17.5cm x 17.5cm

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Ocean Floor

Original
Printmakers' ink and cut papers on water colour paper
28cm x 26cm

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Ultramarine

Original
Printmakers' ink on paper
23.5cm x 16.5cm

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Storm Front

Original
Printmakers' ink, gouache and cut papers on paper
14cm x 17.5cm

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Flamingo

When I look at this painting I think of party balloons and of plastic flamingos, and how, as students of landscape architecture, we would make ironic use of this kitsch garden ornament.

Original
Acrylic glazes, pastel and hand-coloured papers on canvas
30.5cm x 30.5cm

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Starflower

Hand-coloured papers on water colour board

Original
Collage
30cm x 24cm

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The Jade Egg Mine

Original
Pastel, ink, acrylic and hand-coloured papers on Hosho paper
20cm x 20cm

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Leaf Fall 2

I'm drawn to leaves and feathers. And only the flexible nib of a quill could skitter so beautifully over the irregular surface of this heavy handmade paper.
Thanks to John A Parks, Leaf Fall 2 is in the Winter 2010 issue of Drawing magazine, along with drawings by Rembrandt, da Vinci and contemporary artists, in "The Quill Pen - Draw with a Tool of the Masters" (complete with illustrated directions for making your own quill pen!).

Original
Drawing ink and printmaker's ink on Khadi paper
26cm x 20cm

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Salt Marsh

A delightful landscape I discovered amongst random marks made with a brayer and the tip of a palette knife. Which just shows that some of our most rewarding adventures are ones we haven't planned at all.

Original
Printmakers' ink on paper
10cm x 21cm

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Kylie and Johnny

Kylie the wasp-waisted Spitz and Johnny the "Every day is a great hair day" Dachshund live in Chicago. We've never met, but I've heard a lot about them. When I was commissioned to create their double portrait, I had reference photographs for each animal on its own, but none showing the two of them together. I've positioned the dogs facing each other in a head and shoulders composition that I hope not only captures the personality of each animal, but also suggests something of the special relationship between them.

Original
Graphite on Bristol board
18cm x 28cm

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Winter Stag 3

From the Lunar series.

Selected for the 2009 annual exhibition of the Society of Graphic Fine Art.

Graphite on paper
21.5cm x 15cm

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Rugosa 1

The soft pink and lilac tones of Rugosa 1 and 2 call to mind the tough/tender blossoms on the rose outside my living room window.

Hand-coloured papers on water colour board.

Original
Collage
25cm x 31cm

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Azimuth

The first of twelve small paintings on the theme of finding one's way. Each background is cut from the same large abstract drawing I created in the USA as a student under the influence of the Austrian artist/ environmentalist Hundertwasser. As I moved from one continent to another over the next few decades, the drawing would turn up, increasingly dog-eared and folded smaller and smaller; like a map I had drawn years before but did not know how to interpret, until, here in England, I discovered Howard Hodgkin.

Original
Pastel, oil pastel, marker and collage on paper
18cm x 13cm

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Latitude

Both Latitude and Azimuth are in the collection of South African owners who now live and work in my part of the world. But 25 years ago it was their part of the world I ventured into, on my own, as a landscape architect and environmental planner. On my first morning in the Transvaal, I woke up under a thatched roof with a Hadida Ibis shrieking overhead, and knew that this moment would always be the before-and-after point of my life.

Original
Pastel, oil pastel, marker and collage on paper
13cm x 18cm

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Turning Leaves 2

Original
Acrylic glazes and hand-coloured papers on canvas
20cm x 20cm

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Turning Leaves 1

Original
Acrylic glazes and hand-coloured papers on canvas
20cm x 20cm

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Instructions to the Gardener on the Burning of Leaves

I can't think of anything that brings out the wonderful line quality of handwriting more beautifully than a goose quill pen. And when leaves and feathers show up in my work, the one form sometimes morphs into the other (see Leaf Fall 3 in Drawings). So for me there is something elegant about using a feather to write about leaves.

Original
Acrylic glazes and hand-coloured papers on canvas
20cm x 20cm

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Moon Trees

From the Lunar series.

Selected for the 2009 annual selling exhibition of the Society of Graphic Fine Art.

Original
Graphite on Bristol Board
20.5cm x 23cm

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Blue Border

Blue Border and its companion Blue Clematis explore effects of light seen through and between petals and leaves.

Gesso, acrylic glazes and hand-coloured papers on canvas board.

Original
Collage
40cm x 40cm

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Darjeeling

In honour of my morning cuppa.

Sold at the 2009 annual exhibition of the Society of Graphic Fine Art.

Original
Printmakers' ink on paper
14cm x 20cm

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Dune Grass

This little landscape reminds me of childhood holidays on the hurricane-prone Gulf coast. We would pile in the car and drive for hours, sometimes days, through the landlocked prairies of Kansas and Oklahoma, to hunt for sand dollars on the sky-wide beaches of Florida, Alabama and Louisiana.

Original
Printmakers' ink and pen on paper
17.5cm x 19cm

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Tidal Pool

Original
Printmakers' ink and cut papers on water colour paper
22.5cm x 22.5cm

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Leaf Fall 1

The new owner has renamed this drawing Raven's Wing.

Gesso, inks and gouache on water colour paper

Original
Collage
36cm x 15cm

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Salt Cod

With apologies to fish anatomists: a cod's nose does not come to a point. But when this little drawing emerged, the title that immediately swam to mind was Salt Cod. I was hooked.

Original
Drawing ink on paper
18cm x 13cm

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Pheasant Leaves

Original
Gesso, watercolour, acrylic ink, drawing ink, cut papers on water colour paper
18cm x 13cm

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White Meadow

Gesso and hand coloured papers on canvas. Private commission.

Original
Collage
70cm x 100cm

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Wave (oblique detail)

One of my earliest works of collage.

Hand-coloured cut papers on water colour board.

Original
Collage
20cm x 20cm

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Water Meadow

Water Meadow is a four-part collage from my Edge to Edge series, in which shapes spring from, cling to or leap across the edges of the canvas or board. The composition is designed to work well no matter which way is up.

Hand coloured cut papers on water colour board.

Original
Collage
25.5cm x 35.5cm

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Blue Moon

Grasses and the moon are recurring motifs in my art, and when a painting like this travels with its new owner to another part of the world, I think of it as continuing on a journey that began long before any of us were born.

Original
Collage

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Bonfire Night

This little jewel-toned collage helped to raise funds for the Prince's Trust, the official charity of the Windsor Contemporary Art Fair. Each year the art fair artists are given identical small canvases and asked to create a single work of art to be donated for sale, all on an anonymous basis, all at the same very affordable price, proceeds going to the Trust. As I was preparing for the fair in 2008, Guy Fawkes Day was fast approaching and fireworks were on my mind.

Original
Mixed Media
20cm x 20cm

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Eucalyptus

Acrylic glazes and hand-coloured cut papers on canvas.

Original
Collage
25.5cm x 35.5cm

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Bamboo Lake

Fine art collage.

Original
Collage
30cm x 50cm

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Jupiter's Moons

One of a pair of fantastical landscapes.

Original
Collage
17.5cm x 25.5cm

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Snow Dunes

Hand-coloured papers and gesso on canvas. The blades of grass have been cut and applied piece by piece, each one shaped to fit its position in the painting.

Original
Collage
46cm x 122cm

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Dawn

Dawn and its companion painting Dusk explore subtle changes of light in the landscape.

Original
Collage
25cm x 30cm

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Dusk

Dusk and its companion painting Dawn explore subtle changes of light in the landscape.

Original
Collage
25cm x 30cm

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Magnetic North

Original
Acrylic glazes and hand-coloured papers on water colour paper
76cm x 56cm

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Pollen Count

This painting, which was originally a test panel for Undercurrents, took on planetary qualities that also reminded me of electron microscope images of pollen grains.

Many of my paintings are composed so that they have more than just one "right way up"; Pollen Count seems to work equally well in all four orientations.

Acrylic glazes and hand-coloured papers on canvas.

Original
Mixed Media
25cm x 30cm

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Leaf Moon

Acrylic glazes and hand-coloured papers on canvas.

Original
Mixed Media on Canvas
30cm x 30cm

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Lunaria

A highly textured collage of hand-coloured papers on a discarded etching.

Original
Collage
18cm x 13cm

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Say it with Flowers

Like Bonfire Night, which is in the same private collection, this collage was one of the artist-donated canvases sold to raise funds for the Prince's Trust during the 2006 Windsor Contemporary Art Fair. Acrylic glazes and papers on canvas.

Original
Collage
20cm x 20cm

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Red Leaves

Hand-coloured papers on paper.

Collage

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Frangipani

Hand-coloured papers on water colour paper.

Original
Collage
23cm x 27cm

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Sea Anemone (detail)

Acrylic glazes and hand-coloured papers on canvas.

Collage
40cm x 40cm

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Heuchera

Original
Acrylic glazes and hand-coloured papers on canvas.
25cm x 30cm

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Kite Salmon

Original
Hand-coloured papers on canvas board
20cm x 20cm

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Copperleaf 1

Acrylic glazes and hand-coloured papers on canvas.

Original
Collage
40cm x 40cm

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Blue Clematis

Blue Clematis and its companion Blue Border explore effects of light seen through and between petals and leaves.

Acrylic glazes and hand-coloured papers on water colour board.

Original
Collage
40cm x 40cm

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