Forest Bathing
The Forest Bathing Collection was born alongside the wild beauty of Koke'e State Park on the westside of Kaua'i. Each painting captures the sensation of forest bathing and the peace and reverence I feel for Mother Nature.
The Process
Balancing my hermit artist tendencies with my love for exploring raw nature I brought my brushes to the forest. These paintings have road tripped up the mountain, through fern groves, ginger plants, pine trees, rivers and waterfalls. Along for the entire ride, through the mist, rainbows and sun creeping through the trees, air drying by the campfire and under the twinkling stars. Created through energetic paint pours and delicately hand painted foliage, this process encapsulates the essence of forest bathing.
Forest Bathing
oil on canvas
20" x 16"
Waterfall Nymph
oil on canvas
12" x 9"
© Mikaela McLeish 2024
Spring '24
Forest bathing
Angel Auras
The specificity of an object and the energetic memory it contains influences how the human body reacts and activates an environment. I want to inspire people to think about and question what it means to be on this earth and to connect with ancestors and loved ones beyond. Immediately after loss emotions flood my color palette, chromatically associated to each soul’s aura. Drawing upon memory and photographs the portraits are precisely rendered, then manipulated through gestural distortions- fading, hazing, shifting to symbolize energy and passing. Each portrait is tethered to an object that was gifted to me from that loved one. The power and weight of the object containing energetic memory, tethered between the physical and the invisible. By placing the pieces on the ground instead of hanging them, I hope to create intimate engagement and allow for tender offerings of love and remembrance. The size and accessible display of the pieces are reminiscent of tombstones and encourage almost ritualistic acts of devotion.
Angel Auras, 2018-2019
from left to right:
Willy, rising
oil on canvas
38" x 22"
Millie, of the sea
oil on canvas
38" x 22"
Dad, electric
oil on canvas
38" x 22"
Grandpa, in the stars
oil on canvas
38" x 22"
© Mikaela McLeish 2023
about the SERIES
Angel Auras
Aura of the Three Graces
There is an unfolding of the ethereal in this triptych. Referencing the archetypal Three Graces: Aglaea (personifying Radiance), Euphrosyne (Joy), and Thalia (Flowering). Mystical beings hover above a realistic contemporary landscape. The seven levels of the auric field are layered in physicality and intention. Each layer, a bioenergy field ripe with meaning in color and formation. Atop the saturated auras, symbols frame the ladies crowned with metal studs, alluding to the phenomenon of Kirlian photography.
Aura of the Three Graces, 2019
oil, enamel and metal studs on photographic print
triptych 23” x 46”
© Mikaela McLeish 2023
about the Painting
Lady of Orquevaux
Created during a two-week artist residency at Château Orquevaux, Lady of Orquevaux came to life. Profoundly struck by the solitude of the countryside in north-eastern France, I reconnected to the Earth, as Neri Oxman refers to as “mothering Nature, a necessary mental shift from seeing Nature as a boundless, nourishing entity to one that begs nourishment by design. This approach then propels us into the age where we “mother” Nature by design. Mother, the verb.” Dedicating time daily to get still enough to become absorbed in the overlapping sounds of life, witness light shining through the trees, feel the soft caress of the wind on my lips, to mother Nature. She spoke through me in painting; a sort of garden of Eden, blossoming in synchronistic harmony. Trees split to create a map of paths that also resemble neural pathways. Life contained within the stark white boundary line. Surrounding the white trapezoidal shape is a blurred color field, symbolic of the monotonous routine of daily life as a city dweller.
Château Orquevaux Private Collection
oil on canvas
30” x 30”
© Mikaela McLeish 2023
about the Painting
Hypersomnolence
Hypersomnolence is named after the sleeping disorder in which the sufferer experiences recurrent episodes of sleepiness. Paralyzed by the affliction, the figure is stuck somewhere between reality and dream. The toxic color palette is beautiful and vile, and blankets the figure in a supernatural light. The spectator is seduced by a jarring composition and bold use of color. The arm is stretched into an extreme and almost grotesque position, echoing the deformed figures of El Greco and Rodin; the strokes and color emulates that of de Kooning and Bacon. All the while, the anesthetized character is trapped within the boundaries of the canvas, alienated from waking life.
This work was inspired by Edvard Munch’s The Scream. The figure is immersed in the environment and alienated from their own body. The visceral quality of the liquified flesh is submerged in the eerie calm of the image.
I hope to see you, 2014
oil on canvas // stretcher bars
30” x 60”
©Mikaela McLeish 2023
Hypersomnolence, 2014
oil on canvas panel
36” x 48”
©Mikaela McLeish 2023
about the Series
The Yellow Wallpaper
The Yellow Wallpaper is a reference to a short story written in the 19th century by the American writer Charlotte Perkins Gilman, about a woman’s descent into psychosis. The story is a collection of journal entries written from the perspective of a woman whose physician husband forbids her from working so she can recuperate from a “temporary nervous depression”. With nothing to stimulate her, she becomes obsessed with the pattern and color of the wallpaper. There is still a strong social tendency to label women as hysterical or inappropriate when her behavior conflicts with patriarchal standard. The female figure in my painting is not only a stand-in for myself, but indicative of the historical dialogue associated with women in an extreme state of consciousness; "respectable" women are expected to internalize trauma. The figure has no control over the state of her life so she must retreat into the fantasies of her mind in order to maintain some semblance of control. In fact, the paint application and process of painting mirrors this struggle for control. In an attempt to hide anxiety and fear, the imagery produces a facade of serenity, which upon closer inspection breaks down into chaos. Within this piece I applied the existential philosophy of alienation from R.D. Laing’s “The Divided Self”. Beneath the golden strands of hair, a persistent internal monologue consumes a weary face. The painting offers a cinematic entrance into human struggle.
The Yellow Wallpaper, 2013
oil on canvas panel
18” x 28”
©Mikaela McLeish 2023
Spotlight, 2013
mixed media on mylar, backlit
©Mikaela McLeish 2023
Ink, 2012
mixed media on mylar
12” x 9”
©Mikaela McLeish 2023
SOLD
about the Series
Doubling
Doubling acts as a visual biography of self-identity through mirrored images. The image is derived from a past performance which documents my sister submerged in our childhood community pool. Inspired by the ethereal quality of Bill Viola’s video art and John Everett Millais’ painting Ophelia, the large-scale oil painting portrays idioms of youth that melt away in the mirrored image. Mirrors help children develop a sense of self-identity and through mirrors, people recognize and recreate themselves. There is an intimate vulnerability in the act of looking at one’s own reflection because the mirror is key in the construction of ego. Through the doubling of the body there is a doubling of identity and reality; the reflected image appears in a different time. The painting explores Jacques Lacan’s philosophy on mirrors in the composition, documented performance, and illusion of reality in the painting as a two-dimensional object.
Doubling, 2013
oil on canvas panel
36" x 48"
SOLD
The Glass Cell, 2011
watercolor and oil on clayboard panel
30" x 40"
S O L D
Portrait of Artist as Ophelia, 2011
watercolor and oil on clayboard panel
18" x 24"
Veil, 2011
watercolor on Arches paper
24" x 72"
Float, 2011
watercolor on Arches paper
36" x 48"
Blur, 2015
Oil on panel
12" x 20"
SOLD
3 minutes, 2012
oil on panel
36” x 48”
©Mikaela McLeish 2023
about the Series
Cassiopeia
Silver twinkles on a black mass. Crystals cluster in luminous arrangements of constellations. The sheen of the clear vinyl wraps the surface of the canvas, reflecting a distorted image of the viewer and their surroundings, bringing the viewers’ reality into the cosmos of the work.
swarovski crystals, acrylic paint, vinyl wrapped over photographic print
30” x 30”
©Mikaela McLeish 2023
about the Series
Absence // Presence
Explores personal memories of my father’s struggle with bipolar disorder and addiction. The diptych signifies his varied mental states, shifting between presence and absence. The collaging of photographs, drawings, and ink create barriers between the viewer and the original image. The body becomes a container for memory. Silver and dark ink threaten to consume the body, poisoning its flesh. Unstable drawings act as fragmented memories. The weight of darkness on the left is juxtaposed with lightness emerging from the figure on the right. Transparent frosted mylar sheets are layered like wings in an angelic effect. Freed from the weight of their body, their soul illuminates.
Installation created during Vermont Studio Center Artist Residency
Ink, enamel, mylar on discarded fashion photographic print
© Mikaela McLeish 2023
Two photographic digital prints kiss at the meeting of walls, uniting the space of the gallery with the illusion of space that appears in the mirror. The diptych creates a conversation of light and dark, creating a portal of light protruding from the mirrored surface and a doorway receding through darkness, inviting viewers to question their own perception of space.
Installation created during Vermont Studio Center Artist Residency
Paint, mirror mylar on discarded fashion photographic print
© Mikaela McLeish 2023
about the Series
Ancestral Memory
An homage to my grandfather, whose spirit continues to ignite my creativity. This piece is constructed from a collection of his artistic mediums: Kodak slides from his original photography, invisible fishing line, and a capiz shell mobile from his beloved Philippines. Every person passes through time as they move through the intricately strung memories encapsulated in Kodachrome. Like stained glass, light travels through the slides, melting into a kaleidoscope of color, reflecting “memories” into the space and immersing viewers in dreamy vignettes of light. The space becomes an archive of people’s presence, each person having a uniquely individual interaction among the collective experience.
Ancestral Memory, 2017
Found kodak slide collection, fishing line, capiz shell mobile structure
© Mikaela McLeish 2023
about the Artwork
“"I love it, Mikaela!! You have an incredible talent.
It is so special to me!!!"
- Marissa, NYC