Two Warriors

Shona Nunan

2021

bronze
edition 1 of 8
200 x 79 x 23 cm

€102,000

catalogue number

Nunan’s latest series of Guardians have become warriors, perhaps for a time of greater vigilance. These warrior figures are the closest image to an early memory  of travelling in the outback of Australia with her artist father and coming across caves that were guarded by three spirit guardians with their arms crossed and hands outstretched warding off intruders. The image has stayed with Nunan and the influence of the crossed arms have come up many times in the work, like a strong warning to respect the space. The cross appears now in the shield. These particular Guardians have a strongly defined influence of the sword in the torso of the male figure and the female figure with the shield has a spear like influence. Nunan is captivated by the sparseness of sword and shield and finds their almost 2 dimensional elongated forms part of her story of looking for the powerful essence in all things.

ateliers hp

Goddess

Shona Nunan

2020
pastel on paper
169 x 140 unframed

Étretat sea study

2022

oil on canvas

202 x 237 cm

€18,000

Venus

Shona Nunan

2021

bronze
edition 1 of 8

Water study sunrise

Michael Francis Cartwright

2021

oil on canvas

97 x 240 cm

 

Harvest Goddess

Shona Nunan

2021

bronze
edition 1 of 8
157 x 46 x 43 cm

Ocean study

Michael Francis Cartwright

2022

oil on canvas

202 x 237 cm

€18,000

Arrival on exhibition at Saint-Tropez

Shona Nunan

2004 – 2005

bronze

edition 1 of 3

230 x 150 x 70 cm

€171,000

catalogue number SNS23

The Horse and Rider is a significant evolving theme in Nunan’s work. With early influences from old Swedish horse carvings, Chinese ceramics and the Italian artist Marino Marini, she has created her horse and riders to represent the journey through life. Each plateau in her life has brought forth a new Horse and Rider. Nunan symbolically regards the Horse and Rider as a symbiotic union of spirit and ego. Her earlier horses were a lot finer and lighter than the heavier riders, more and more the horse is stronger and more than equal in the partnership. 

Reflecting the passage through life, Arrival’ emerged after a time of great endurance and with this sculpture Nunan often refers to the sense that she had climbed to the top of a mountain. The feeling of arrival gave a great sense of calm and tranquility with an overview of the past and the view ahead splendid, the possibilities endless.

 

 

Guardians – on exhibition in Saint-Tropez

Shona Nunan

2013

The Guardians edition 3 of 3

240 cm tall

€120,000

“The Guardians emerged in my work at first as ‘Night’ and ‘Day‘ and then they became little fecund women figures on hilltops and single figures in the landscape, ethereal figures connecting to the spirit of the land. In other ancient cultures I have found Guardians too. The Etruscans,   the Cycladic Greeks, the Egyptians, the Africans, the pre-Columbians…  The Guardians are amongst the great archetypes of civilization and deep down,  even today, and without hocus pocus, we know we have to protect the things that are sacred to us, our inner selves, our children, our homes. The Guardians at an entrance are saying, come in, but be respectful. For me, these Guardians symbolically represent the balance of life,  they are yin and yang, male and female, conscious and unconscious, night and day.”

catalogue number SNS17