We Wish We Could Capture London As Beautifully As This Artist Did

Will Noble
By Will Noble Last edited 54 months ago

Last Updated 15 November 2019

We Wish We Could Capture London As Beautifully As This Artist Did
"The National Theatre as viewed from Waterloo Bridge looking glorious on a crisp autumn day."

On her wanderings around London, Gabriella Marsh sketches out the scenes before her, in pencils and pastels. Every image seems to shimmy with movement, caused both by the pencil strokes, and the Londoners who inhabit each vignette.

"Borough Market looking cosy and festive at closing time."

Here, Marsh leads us through her London, explaining her thoughts and inspirations along the way.

"Dale Chihuly’s fantastic glass sculpture in the entrance hall of the
V&A."
"Had to draw this on bright green paper. There was so much moss on Regent's Canal at the end of summer it looked like you could have walked across it. I omitted all the beer cans floating in it but in hindsight probably should have left them in."
"Primrose Hill the summer of 2017, completely burnt to a crisp."
"Trying to draw Van Gogh’s Sunflowers but got the people taking photos in front of it instead." National Gallery
"As part of a collaborative graphic novel project I worked on with the lovely Laila Shurman who has a creole food stall on Church Street near Edgware Road."
Church Street, Edgware Road. From the same series as Laila's Creole Soul Food
"There were two years when I was living in New Cross Gate and commuting to Shepherd's Bush and every day I would walk 45 minutes to Canada Water just to get a bit of fresh air before shutting myself in the tube for an hour. I passed these flats every day and started making up a story of two girls who lived in neighbouring flats. I will finish it one day."
"I freelance and working at home by yourself all day is a one stop train to crazy town so I often try and work in cafes around where I live in south east London."
"Little park behind New Cross Road"
"My favourite library in London kind of looking like a spaceship landed in Peckham."
"Another favourite cafe to work in." South London Gallery cafe
"This is a drawing from a comic I wrote called Yellowberries which follows a woman on her quest to make a map of all the trees in Southwark Park."

See more of Gabriella Marsh's illustrations — and animations — on her website. Follow her on Instagram as @gabriella.marsh

All images © Gabriella Marsh

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