Sticks and Stones: The Designs of Lew French

Description

Lew French is a master stonemason who finds and gathers hundreds of individual stones to create a single fireplace or an outdoor stone wall that looks like it had been there for hundreds of years. Rather than use a chisel, his stones have to fit together naturally; he remembers and fits them together in his mind's eye. From a huge outdoor water feature at an office building near Boston, to a residential landscape on Chappaquiddick, to his own retreat home in the mountains of Brazil, each creation is breathtaking. New to this second book on Lew French's designs, are gallery-quality, framed art pieces, puzzled together from rock and driftwood, resulting in one-of-a-kind wall sculptures. Fans of natural building and all kinds of masonry will be more than impressed. AUTHOR: Lew French is the designer, architect, and builder of his work. He has spent over 30 years working on Martha's Vineyard, Boston, in the Adirondacks, and other Northeastern locations. He has built his own home in Brazil. He was inducted into the New England Design Hall of Fame in 2015. Alison Shaw is a fine art and editorial photographer who works and teaches on Martha's Vineyard. Over 8,000 of her original fine art prints are in public and private collections. There are 19 books of her work so far, including a book she wrote about photographing Martha's Vineyard. 150 colour photos

Lew French was born in a small farming town in southern Minnesota, called Zumbrota. He started to work with stone when he was nineteen years old. He had a small construction crew right out of high school and built one or two houses a year. This is when he started to explore with stone. He moved to Martha's Vineyard twenty years ago, and for the past twenty years has worked on his own stone designs exclusively. His work has been featured in the New York Times and House Beautiful. Alison Shaw is a fine-art and editorial photographer who lives and works on Martha's Vineyard, which has provided the inspiration and subject matter for much of her color and black-and-white photography. Over 5000 of her original fine art prints are in public and private collections. Alison's work appears regularly in Yankee Magazine, Martha's Vineyard Magazine and Cape Cod Life.