Sophie Anne Wyth
London, United Kingdom
I became a painter through undergoing art therapy. This initial approach brought playfulness and a sense of freedom to my practice.
I studied art and fashion in Paris and started my art career in London alongside directing my fashion business. I keep from this experience in the luxury fashion industry a high sense of aesthetic, and endeavour to bring elegance and beauty to my paintings, highlighting their mysterious and unnerving nature.
My art practice is centred around abstract and figurative oil painting. They are complementary and one feeds the other. I create my abstract with no visual support, looking within to find forms and listening to what the paint calls for. I start with a loose idea and allow the piece to unfold and surprise me. There is no predefined direction the picture should take, allowing for creativity throughout the process. For figurative work, I use visual supports and find from this constraint new techniques which enhance my abstract work.
Recently I have been developing a new figurative body of work that tackles the climate emergency and human impact. I have been researching intensive animal farming, its environmental consequences and disastrous animal treatment. The research has taken me to unexpected places and to uncomfortable realisations about our food industry as a whole. As I absorb these facts the project transforms and is becoming more personal.