by jodie drinkwater
Pen, Ink and Goache on Japanese Rice Paper
h: 33 w: 24 (cms).
This piece is a tribute to the Hebridean Mermaid.
It is rumoured that there is a mermaid's grave in Benbecula.
Around 1900, the following tale was published about the island of Benbecula in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland:
"Some seventy years ago, people were cutting seaweed at Sgeir na Duchadh, Grimnis, Benbecula. Before putting on her stockings, one of the women went to the lower end of the reef to wash her feet. While doing so she heard a splash in the calm sea, and looking up she saw a creature in the form of a woman in miniature, some few feet away. Alarmed, the woman called to her friends, and all the people present rushed to the place. The creature made somersaults and turned about in various directions. Some men waded into the water to seize her, but she moved beyond their reach. Some boys threw stones at her, one of which struck her in the back. A few days afterwards, this strange creature was found dead at Cuile, Nunton, nearly two miles away."
Source: http://anomalyinfo.com/Stories/ca-1830-mermaid-killed-benbecula-scotland
Here I have depicted her gazing out to sea sat on a rock near a headland under the night sky.