Shona Nunan
1999
Bronze unique cast
236 x 30 x 30 cm
Nunan’s amphora series were an early attestation to the abundant power of womanhood and its cyclic messages of fertility and alternating emptiness, like a vessel.
This sculpture of ‘Earth Guardian’, in the mode of Nunan’s amphora series, has also a sense of a leaning ancient column with its simplicity of form and elongated protective presence.
Shona Nunan
2016
bronze
edition 1 of 6
181 x 48 x 30
‘Sentinel’ is a strong woman form standing on guard. She comes inspired by the ancient sword, the hilt with its ornate guard and pommel becoming her body and the blade, the graceful length of her legs. In a two dimensional way the sword figure relates to Nunan’s vessel series of women forms. The simple strength of the lines in the sword and the lovely swirl of the guards have enriched the language of her woman forms as guardians and sentinels.
Michael Francis Cartwright
2015
bronze
edition of 3
200 x 85 x 40 cm
From Cartwright’s Bird series, ‘Reflection’, is the form of a bird with its reflection in the water. It is about balance and harmony, the polished bird on the darkness of the depths of the water. There is also a sense of gentle movement, and again a sense of play with the forms.
Michael Francis Cartwright
2015
Bronze sculpture
edition of 3
189 x 120 x 63 cm
maquette created in 2000
edition of of 8
The Monks’ journeys over the seas, searching for a place to retreat and contemplate during the tumultuous Dark Ages of Europe, brought them to Skellig Michael in Southern Ireland, off the Ring of Kerry. They built dome houses on the ragged rocky islands and fished and ate mutton birds, and transcribed the great books they gathered from other lands. Cartwright spent four months on the southern edge of Ireland overlooking the wild Atlantic and Skellig Michael, studying the stories and history of the area, inspiring him to create a series on the ancient Monks and Vikings.
available
Michael Francis Cartwright
2016
bronze edition of 3
256 x 194 x 36 cm
This sculpture is inspired from my ‘Fishing’ series. It comes from the boat sitting on the edge of the reef, just in balance between the enormous depths of the ocean and the shallows of the reefs. My other inspiration for this sculpture is the great outback of Australia and the stories and dreamings of the original people at their sacred site, Uluru.
I see this sculpture as representing a part of the great journey of life, the vehicle, the boat, traveling through the night sky, its great net collecting the dreams of the people on the land, treasures in the making.
Michael Francis Cartwright
2003
Cast aluminium
66 x 124 x 40 cm
also a bronze edition of 3
I would like to share with you some insight into Michael’s work and in particular his Bird series. I have known Michael’s work for many years and always I am challenged with the language of his work and always I am delighted, though my understanding can sometimes take years in formation. Michael’s creativity is spontaneous and draws inspiration from his free interpretation of life, he is free without compromise, and it is this freedom that is ultimately human though sometimes forgotten in the rules we place around ourselves. From freedom comes the Bird series, the most powerful reference to Michael’s language as a free being. Michael loves the story and his work can be ‘read’ and it is perhaps the bird in his work, (for there are many), that reflect the state his spirit is in. Some birds he has created have lain down, ‘Reclining bird’, and seem to have come from a period when he had to rest and wait before he could ‘fly’ again. But he also has ‘Nest’, a proud upright Bird overlooking his nest, defending or protecting his creation in the egg like form before him. Portrait of a bird, abstracted and beautiful, is a work that reflects the nobility of purpose.
Michael likes contrast with his work, so you will often find the tough and the tender within the same work. Sometimes it is expressed through texture, soft and smooth and rough and lumpy. Sometimes it is through organized, beautifully finished forms and their adhoc arrangement, irreverent of proportion.
Michael Francis Cartwright
2017
bronze
edition 2 of 3
223 x 96 x 31 cm
‘Moondance’ celebrates the beauty of the night sky. Like a beautiful luminous constellation dancing joyously across the universe to the moon, Cartwright’s sculpture, ‘Moondance’, is a tribute to ancient times when the night was a connection to the greater universe. Cartwright’s sculpture pays tribute to our lost connection with the cosmos as modern life mostly confines us indoors.
Moon Dance was cast in bronze at Versiliese foundry in Pietrasanta. It is in an edition of three.
Edition 1 of 3 was first exhibited in the ‘Journeys’ exhibition at Australia House, London, it has now been donated to the village of Correns, France.
to be cast
Shona Nunan
1997
bronze, unique
140 high
not available
She comes from meeting a beautiful Camaroon woman in China.
She was tall and gracious, her forms rounded, even the makeup of her brows.
She seemed poised and wise and ready to carry anything asked from her.
In my mind I saw her carrying water, water a symbol of the spirit, carried to bestow nourishment and plenty.
2022
oil on canvas
202 x 237 cm
Michael Francis Cartwright
1996
bronze
edition of 3
160 x 68 x 12 cm
Created in Provence while in residence at Mas des Graviers I was inspired by the play of my two young sons, their freedom to take any find and turn it into whatever their imagination needed was a great lesson of creativity for me. My ‘Young Boy Playing’ with a shield, is made of found branches from the vineyard and bits n pieces from the studio yard to assist in my own play in creating this work. It is the Joy of Life.