Guardian of Arcadia

Cardcrete Artwork

Artwork Details

Guardian of Arcadia brings together layered symbols of protection, beauty, and vulnerability. A serpent encircles the image, acting as both boundary and guardian, drawing on its long association in Greek mythology with protection, renewal, and threshold spaces between worlds. Within this frame, paired swans form a vessel-like structure, their symmetry reinforcing ideas of balance and idealised beauty often linked to Arcadian imagery.

At the centre, a reclining female figure rests within a shell, referencing the iconography of Aphrodite, whose birth from the sea is traditionally depicted through the scallop shell. The figure’s exposed, simplified form emphasises vulnerability and purity, positioning her as both human and divine presence. The shell operates as a protective and generative space, suggesting femininity, origin, and transformation. Together, these elements construct Arcadia as a guarded, symbolic realm where beauty is held, protected, and made visible through myth.

The work is constructed from a cardboard armature, which was then coated in my Cardcrete medium, a material made with 100% recycled cardboard made from scratch, creating a solid, textural base that has the feel of sculpted or built material rather than canvas.

Medium - recycled cardboard, cardcrete, plasters, acrylic.

Dimensions - 360mm x 360mm

Artist - Penny Brooshooft

Care -

• Weight is approximately 2kg.
• D-ring and hanging wire inbuilt into back of artwork.
• Shipping is free within Australia.
• International shipping is $250 AUD.
  

• All artworks are ready to hang.