This elegant pair of unicorns reveals Juliet Peter’s interest in how curving lines and repeating rhythms can create a sense of movement, a quality that also animated the work of Shurrock, her favourite lecturer. Peter often depicted animals, using observational skills honed during her farming childhood at Anama in Waitaha Canterbury. As an illustrator for the School Journal and Listener, she drew fish, birds, sheepdogs, rabbits, circus ponies and even elephants. she included a unicorn in at least one other work, a ceramic candle holder that is much sturdier and more earth-bound than these high-stepping beauties.

(Dear Shurrie: Francis Shurrock and his contemporaries, 8 March – 13 July 2025)