Wyn Haythornthwaite
Wyn Haythornthwaite is a Suffolk-based artist working across mixed media, painting and sculpture. She graduated in Fine Art from Sunderland University and went on to earn a Post Graduate Certificate of Education at the Institute of Education, London University.
Artist Statement
My work is about 'Journeys' — both meditative and visionary. I want to invite the observer into a magical world awakened by vibrational sound and conscious dreaming, where mythical creatures and dragons flow through layered fields of colour and mystic symbolism opens space for the viewer's imagination to flourish.
The symbols in my work are expressions of vibrations that came to me as a universal language. They were first gifted to me by a song from a leaf at a circle of twelve, gathered in Asturias, Spain, a few years ago. Since then, many more sounds and vibrations have arrived through nature — trees, mycelium, birdsong — and through drums, singing bowls, meditation, shamanic practice, and the company of like minds.
Everything is always moving, energetically vibrating and connecting. I spend long stretches looking and listening — whole days, sometimes — and it returns me to that childlike space of attention, of discovery, another reality. The symbols are not static; they move and shift in time and space, communicating with each other and with the viewer. Because they are abstract, they mean different things to different observers — and different things at different times. They open doors of consciousness however they are needed.
Translating these vibrational songs into image is usually a long process. I have no idea how the final picture will look — my images are channelled. The initial vision gives me the composition and basic elements, and from there I sit with the work, letting the colour range and shamanic meditations, or inspirational music, add their voice. (Might drum a bit.) When I reach that place of just 'me and it', painting happens. Body movement matters to the marks — massive gestures or small details. I work in layers.
Beneath all of this sits my training in shape, form, space and balance — and a quest for beauty somewhere in the mix. The technique becomes subconscious within that framework, while the materials themselves add their own voice: unexpected effects, accidents, gestures. It all gets mish-mashed together, and somehow I'm there, journeying toward some sort of coherence.
