LEONIE SIRI MACMILLAN
Born in New Hampshire, 1968. Lives in Fife, UK.
PROFILE
Self-employed sculptor.
Siri's practice involves high fired clays, coloured slips, textured markings, melted glass and photographic decals.
A plaster cast mould provides the basic form for the clay which is then sculpted by hand. Colour is then applied using slips and self-made glazes which have been informed by abstract colour sketches.
Ceramics create an enduring record, when embedded with photographs become a message for the future.
Recently at DJCAD, Siri has been creating a new mythological character with feminist overtones and ecological concerns. Materiality has also become a main exploration , combining the durable with the fragile , such as bronze with paper. This echoes the subject matter in terms of highlighting the precarious.
EDUCATION
2023-2025 - MFA Fine Art DJCAD
2022- Drawing Ecologies, DJCAD ( Online upskilling module, part of the MFA), Dundee.
2016 – Lifelong Learning evening degree at St Andrews University, English Literature, and Geography.
1995-96 Ceramic Apprenticeship with Lotte Glob, Sutherland U.K.
1995 Postgraduate paper on Ceramic Jewellery design for Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art.
1995 Postgraduate Ceramic development at DJCAD, Dundee.
1991-92 Postgraduate diploma in Electronic Imaging from DJCAD, Dundee.
1986-91 M.A. Hons in film & T.V./ Theatre studies from Glasgow University, Glasgow.
1980-86 Secondary schooling at Madras College, St. Andrews.
WORK EXPERIENCE/AWARDS
Present - Self employed Sculptor.
2022 Brugal whale installation painter , Fairmont hotel, St Andrews.
2022 Mental Health Festival Project, Sculpture workshop.
2018 VACMA award to develop making with Paper Clay (Funded by Fife Contemporary, Fife Cultural Trust and Creative Scotland)
2017 Booker Project. Won the St Andrew’s University competition with creative response to ‘In the country of Men’ by Hisham Matar.
2016 Commissioned by St Andrews University Chaplaincy to make 2 Baptism Fonts for St Salvators Chapel and St Leonards Chapel, St Andrews.
2015 Meet Your Maker at Cambo House, demonstrating my work process at an event organised by Craft Scotland.
2012 Development Grant from Fife Council/ Fife Contemporary: Tuition from Marion Smith, Sculptor, in Plaster Casting.
(More in Website)
EVENTS
2023 - Landscape Awards Exhibition talk, ( January 13th 2024) City Arts Centre , Edinburgh. ‘Cailleach’.
https://www.scottishartstrust.org/2023-landscape
2022/3 - (November 5th/6th) Bowhouse Christmas Market, St Monans.
https://www.bowhousefife.com/food-weekends/
2022 - ( September 12th) Demonstration of Japanese throwing technique at SPA, The Bield, Perthshire.
2021 - Scottish Potters Online, Land sea and Fire exhibition , www.scottishpotters.org
Present - Craft Scotland Directory, selected member .
https://www.craftscotland.org/craft-directory/makers/leonie-siri-macmillan
2021- Platform Review, featured artist with whale paintings.
https://platformreview.org/leonie-macmillan
2020 – Hulabhaig Re-Imagined Online, exhibiting my whale painting ‘https://www.bowhousefife.com/food-weekends/ Possibilities’. www.huabhaiggallery.oess1.uk
East Neuk Open Studios, since 2017, next event in November 2022. www.eastneukopenstudios.org
REPRESENTING GALLERIES
2024 Fidra Fine Art, Gullane
Sproson Gallery, St Andrews
Weem Gallery, Pittenweem
PAST EXHIBITIONS
2023/4 - Landscape Awards Exhibition, City Arts Centre , Edinburgh. ‘Cailleach’.
2023 ’Sedna’s Dreams’ Pittenweem Arts Festival, Fife.
2022 'Sedna', Pittenweem Arts Festival, Fife.
2019, Whales, The Fisher gallery, Pittenweem, Sacred Cetaceans, Pittenweem Arts Festival, Fife
Whales in Plastic, Fidra Fine Art, Gullane
2018, Reson@te; Torsos, Image Collective gallery, Ocean Terminal, Edinburgh, Torsos, Fidra Fine Art, Gullane.
( More on website).
