Swayne studied Fine Art at Newcastle University from 1985–1989 and in 1990, she won a Northern Arts Travel award to paint and make super-8 films about voodoo in New Orleans, then moved to rural France for a year, living as a portraitist and making a series of large outdoor paintings.

In 1992 she moved to the UK and became a pioneer special effects designer at Computer Film Company, in London and later, in Los Angeles.

After leaving the film industry in 2004, Swayne worked as an assistant for Jake and Dinos Chapman rebuilding Hell.

Although better known as a painter, in 2005 she joined experimental rock group Bender and, in the following year, became a member of 'Krautrock' group Faust,[2] with whom she has recorded two albums and toured widely, making musical improvisations and live paintings at venues such as the Wrexner Centre for the Arts in Ohio, Detroit Museum of Contemporary Art and CalArts.

In 2010 she was a finalist in the John Moores Painting Prize, Walker Gallery, Liverpool, and in 2014 she had her first Museum show in 'Were Still Here' at Magasin6 in Stockholm.