Leonie MacMillan
Leonie MacMillan is an artist from St Andrews, Scotland. She studied film at Glasgow University and Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art, Dundee. She has been painting and making ceramics for over twenty years. Her filmmaking experience has inspired her to create narratives for all her work. Science and mythology intertwine in comment to the human condition. By using the symbol of the goddess, she is able to link past and present mythologies. Her whale paintings are part of her exploration into the myth of the sea goddess Sedna. Find Leonie at siriceramics.com
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I have produced a series of whale studies in oils. I have been imagining how Sedna, goddess of the sea would see the whales. In the myth of Sedna she transforms into a sea goddess with a whale tail. The details are not specified about what this transformation looked like or of her size. So the studies are an exploration of shapes, textures, and colours that will help me visualize Sedna and her whales.
Painting on a primed board or canvas, I used oil paints thinned with linseed oil. I have used photographs, films and my sketchbook for reference. I have been swimming in the Scottish sea to feel the ocean. Once, I experienced a pod of porpoises swimming around my canoe. It was a dance of flashing fins and an extraordinary sound of breath.
We know so little about Cetacean consciousness and thought but they appear in mythologies all over the globe as powerful benevolent beings. The myth of Sedna is about protecting the oceans and its creatures. I feel more connected to the ocean after painting these whales and have a profound sense that we as a species must embody the spirit of Sedna.
In one of my paintings I wrote a pencil quote from graffiti artist Banksy: “From this moment despair ends and tactics begin.” This applies to protecting the oceans and also to the current coronavirus pandemic. It is time to protect our whole planet from mass extinction.
Leonie MacMillan, St. Andrews, Scotland 2021