Originating from Greek, mythopoetic means “myth-making” or creating narratives. It is an approach to art where the artist invents their own symbols, creatures, and stories to explore identity, memory, and existential themes, rather than retelling established ancient myths. The artist is not just the producer of an image, but a participant within it, acting as a shaman or storyteller, often using their personal mythology to heal or find stability.
Catherine Hyde’s work frequently explores thresholds, the liminal spaces between waking and dreaming, dusk and dawn, life and death. Her paintings of flora and fauna utilize archetypal imagery, such as the Hare, Stag, Fish, the Green Man, and the Trickster, to create narratives and suggest stories. Working in acrylic on canvas, she uses the repeated layering of paint to represent the ‘adding and subtracting’ of memory and meaning. The surface is further built up and embedded with metal leaf, mica flakes, coins, and seeds, connecting the work to themes of earth, decay, and renewal.
‘It is the otherness of the hare that interests me, their elusiveness, their mythology. For many years, I have employed the earthy magic of the hare as a symbol in my paintings. I see the hare as a conduit, representing freedom and wildness, marking the seasons and pulling the year along. In many of my earlier pieces, it has been a contemplative symbol of fertility. In more recent work, it is a shapeshifter, a witch, the watcher in the landscape.
It has always been an expression of the restlessness of my creative energy.
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‘Shakespeare said that art is a mirror held up to nature. And that’s what it is. The nature is your nature, and all of these wonderful poetic images of mythology are referring to something in you. When your mind is trapped by the image out there so that you never make the reference to yourself, you have misread the image.’
Campbell, J. (1988). 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘗𝘰𝘸𝘦𝘳 𝘰𝘧 𝘔𝘺𝘵𝘩.
This year I am following the flight of the goose at dawn. We hear them heralding the morning with their call, feel the rush of their flight overhead, the early sun lighting their underbellies over the branch dark trees.
2025 is fast drawing to a close and I don’t remember a year that has seemed to slip by so swiftly.
Back in January, I went on an Arvon workshop called Magic and Transformation at Totleigh Barton in Devon. The course, run by Helen Ivory and Jess Mookherjee was amazing not least for the teaching and the company but also the place itself. I came away with my head buzzing with images, a profound encounter with a hare, and a confusion of words.
I gradually realised that if I went to Totleigh again I wouldn’t write, I’d want to be going out into the landscape breathing it in and painting, drawing, taking photographs.
So I am directing my focus back to responding to the world solely with brush and camera. In effect I am giving myself more time after several years of working on books to go back to my roots and I am aware of a curious feeling of relief in having made that decision.
I am proud to have written and had published The Star Tree, a children’s lullaby picture book (Frances Lincoln), The Hare and The Moon and The Bee and The Sun (Zephyr), two almanac folklore calendar books and finally Darkling, The Owl’s Song (Apollo/Bloomsbury) an original poem accompanied by a series of paintings following the owl’s journey through the liminal places between dusk and dawn.
To have produced these books has been a massive achievement and would not have been possible without having had the opportunity to paint and illustrate works for Carol Ann Duffy, Jackie Morris, Saviour Pirotta and Lauren St John all of which stretched me in new ways, enabling me to explore the craft of word and image and gave me the courage to do the whole lot myself.
As part of this allowing myself more time I am also going to be limiting the card and calendar sales from my shop and will be directing customers towards the shops and galleries who supply my John Austin cards and Love from the Artist.
My studio is now separate from my print room and is purely about the painting and creating, the only distraction being the call of the teapot and the need to go out in to the landscape.
I have just returned home from an unexpected, as these things often are, spell in hospital. I am recovering well thanks to the care of all the amazing doctors and staff at Treliske in Cornwall.
The timing could have been better. I am still catching up with orders but feeling much clearer headed and hoping to have it all done by the end of this week.
My gallery shop has prints and originals available and will be open until the 14th December. Orders placed after this time will be processed in the New Year.
Thank you for all your kind messages, patience and understanding.
A leap of hares has bounded into The Lighthouse Gallery’s Christmas Show in Penzance.
Winter Lights: A Christmas Exhibition
22nd November 2025 onwards
Step into the gallery this Christmas to enjoy our vibrant and varied collection of Cornish paintings, each capturing the region’s distinctive blend of rugged coastline, luminous skies, and rich artistic heritage. We welcome you with a tapestry of perspectives—works that span from sweeping seascapes to intimate glimpses of still life, all united by the unmistakable spirit of Cornwall.
We are particularly excited to reveal a new collection straight from the studio of Catherine Hyde – much anticipated and inducing a feeling that uniquely signals this special time of year.
Needless to say, we have a fabulous collection of Artist made jewellery, glorious ceramics, fused glass and an inspiring display of sculptures from ceramic to bronze.
