Wynne-Jones was born at Dolgellau, north Wales, the youngest of three children. A delicate child, she was educated at home. Her love of animals started her drawing and painting, and she received instruction from the children's book illustrator Ruth Gervis.
In 1952 she turned her full attention to painting and enrolled at the Chelsea School of Art as a non-degree student. In the 1950s and 60s, she was a significant figure in the Cornish artistic community of St Ives, where she turned her home in
to studios for other artists and writers, and she painted under the guidance of Peter Lanyon from 1957-1962.She married Irish sculptor Conor Fallon in 1965 and moved to Ireland in 1972. The discovery, in the 1990s, of the large bogs of County Mayo came as a revelation to Wynne-Jones. It was her desire, she said, "to possess and be possessed" by this multi-textured landscape which galvanised her into a late flowering, blending abstract and figuration to convey the total sensation of atmosphere. Seamus Heaney referred to her paintings, earthy and moist, with rich warm, subtle ochres and reds, as "place and palette and spirit, all equal".
She exhibited extensively in group and solo shows, being represented by the Taylor Galleries in Dublin and was elected an honorary member of the Royal Hibernian Academy in 1994 and Aosdána in 1996. She died aged 83 at her home in County Wicklow.
In 2015, Adam's hosted 'The Ballard House Sale' which featured the collection of Nancy Wynne-Jones and her husband, Conor Fallon. Please click here to view the catalogue, with an introduction essay by Brian Fallon.
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