Fin maidens in Orcadian mythology are similar to mermaids or sirens. In the Mitherspher mythology they are kind beings that work in a community to help the sea goddess heal the ocean. This sculpture shows the fin maiden abstracted in a similar way to the work of Barbara Hepworth, but with a fin on her back and hair that could also be a bird’s beak. There are whales painted onto the sculpture using wax relief, revealing the clay slips beneath the white glaze.
Price: £150
Leonie Siri MacMillan Biography
Leonie Siri MacMillan is an interdisciplinary artist working across sculpture, drawing and film. She is a nomad at heart, drawn to the ocean and bodies of water. Her practice investigates mythology as a way of understanding complex emotional and environmental experiences.
Presently she is developing a technique of drawing with seawater and ink, that allows the pigments to move freely until the seawater evaporates. The drawings help her to discover shapes for ceramic sculptures that form the basis of an imaginary world inspired by Orcadian legends. She is in the process of inventing a new mythology, led by the sea goddess Mitherspher. It's a world that involves fin maidens that live under the magical island of Eynhallow, while subterranean creatures lurk in the shadows. The goddess’s mission is to heal failing ocean currents and sea mammals. Within this new work, she hopes to demonstrate the inherent strength of Women combining with the preservation and restoration of ocean ecologies, in response to climate change.
Her ceramic sculpture is made with various stoneware clays, high-fired and decorated with coloured slips, melted glass, circular markings and sometimes photographic images. Her glazes and shapes are informed by the abstract interpretation of her invented mythology, drawn with seawater ink on Fabriano paper.
Key achievements include:
Mitherspher, a short film selected for the Society of Scottish Artists 127th Annual exhibition at the Royal Scottish Academy, Upper Galleries, Edinburgh. January to February 2026.
MFA Fine Art with distinction from Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design. Dundee, 2025.
Cailleach, a ceramic sculpture selected for the Scottish Landscape Awards Exhibition, from The Scottish Art Trust, City Arts Centre, Edinburgh, 2023/4.
Echo Chamber, a video performance with clay, shown as part of A Brief Conversation by Duncan of Jordanstone’s Student Curatorial Team, at the V&A Dundee, 2024.
Broken Torso, a ceramic sculpture that won the Booker Prize competition, in response to Hisham Matar’s novel ‘In the Country of Men’, 2017.
Commissioned to make two ceramic Baptism Fonts by St Andrews University Chaplaincy, for St Salvator’s Chapel and St Leonards Chapel, St Andrews, 2016.
She has work in the University of Dundee Museum Collections, and is represented by Sproson Gallery, St Andrews, The Weem Gallery, Pittenweem, and Fidra Fine Art, Gullane.
