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Stone
This British artist uses natural materials -- rocks, boulders, sand, mud, and clay -- to create outdoor sculptures.
120 pages, Hardcover
First published March 1, 1994
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340 people want to read
About the author
Andy Goldsworthy
28 books178 followersAndy Goldsworthy is an English sculptor, photographer and environmentalist living in Scotland who produces site-specific sculpture and land art situated in natural and urban settings. His art involves the use of natural and found objects, to create both temporary and permanent sculptures which draw out the character of their environment.
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
January 31, 2015
Andy Goldsworth has a knack of taking simple, natural, elements, such as leaves, stones, grasses and soil and transforming them into ethereal and sublime pieces of art.
This book has some of his most widely recognised images from the towers of stones that have a limited life beaches of the incoming tide, to the way a rock covered with leaves, takes on new dimensions and brings a start contrast to the surrounding forest.
I love the way too that he uses the most transient elements of ice and water. From the rain shadows that he creates to the use of icicles in dramatic ways. There are rocks taken in each season covered with different leaves, the black of ash to the autumnal red of hazel and interestingly shaped stones covered with leaves or surrounded with sticks at different parts of the year.
But this is a book primarily about him artistic exploration with stone. He makes the most amazing cairns and arches that sit in the landscape as if they have been there for years and are made from the materials that he has to hand such as slate or river stones. Probably the most amazing is a cairn that was stuck to a vertical cliff wall held in place by the frozen water between the stones.
Not all of them work, but the art that he creates is dependant on the materials and the conditions as much as the intent. But all the pieces have energy and a dynamic spirit that transcends the original material and make such beautiful, temporary masterpieces.
Exquisite.
This book has some of his most widely recognised images from the towers of stones that have a limited life beaches of the incoming tide, to the way a rock covered with leaves, takes on new dimensions and brings a start contrast to the surrounding forest.
I love the way too that he uses the most transient elements of ice and water. From the rain shadows that he creates to the use of icicles in dramatic ways. There are rocks taken in each season covered with different leaves, the black of ash to the autumnal red of hazel and interestingly shaped stones covered with leaves or surrounded with sticks at different parts of the year.
But this is a book primarily about him artistic exploration with stone. He makes the most amazing cairns and arches that sit in the landscape as if they have been there for years and are made from the materials that he has to hand such as slate or river stones. Probably the most amazing is a cairn that was stuck to a vertical cliff wall held in place by the frozen water between the stones.
Not all of them work, but the art that he creates is dependant on the materials and the conditions as much as the intent. But all the pieces have energy and a dynamic spirit that transcends the original material and make such beautiful, temporary masterpieces.
Exquisite.
March 19, 2025
I love Goldsworthy's writings in this. He does such a good job of making the reader see the world through his eyes, to see the themes and symbols in nature that preoccupy him. To me, this is exactly what a great art book should be like--to feel like walking into the artist's pocket dimension.
When I was a little girl, I did a lot of playing with nature. Crouching in the trees cutting up dead wood with a pocketknife, lying on the beach with my face centimeters from the sand, inspecting the shapes of individual grains...I still engage in this kind of exploration through play as an adult, but much less so. I don't have enough time anymore. In his art, Goldsworthy explores this kind of play, and takes it very seriously. To play with nature, experimenting with the physics of the world around you, opens you up to deep understanding.
A big theme in "Stone" is tension, the potential energy in everything. Rocks are such a fantastic medium with which to explore this idea. Goldsworthy creates arches of stones, held together only by tension. He describes every boulder as either on or resting from a journey, everything fluid on a large enough time scale. He mentions watching a huge boulder tumble off a cliff and roll across a road. Minutes later, a family drove across where the boulder had crossed, unaware of the sudden violence that was just there. Tension in everything, held in, built up, released, all things at once. Potential, creation, destruction, potential.
When I was a little girl, I did a lot of playing with nature. Crouching in the trees cutting up dead wood with a pocketknife, lying on the beach with my face centimeters from the sand, inspecting the shapes of individual grains...I still engage in this kind of exploration through play as an adult, but much less so. I don't have enough time anymore. In his art, Goldsworthy explores this kind of play, and takes it very seriously. To play with nature, experimenting with the physics of the world around you, opens you up to deep understanding.
A big theme in "Stone" is tension, the potential energy in everything. Rocks are such a fantastic medium with which to explore this idea. Goldsworthy creates arches of stones, held together only by tension. He describes every boulder as either on or resting from a journey, everything fluid on a large enough time scale. He mentions watching a huge boulder tumble off a cliff and roll across a road. Minutes later, a family drove across where the boulder had crossed, unaware of the sudden violence that was just there. Tension in everything, held in, built up, released, all things at once. Potential, creation, destruction, potential.
July 3, 2025
Quite to add if hasn’t already been added:
“I do not simply cover rocks. I need to understand the nature that is in all things. Stone is wood, water, earth, grass… I am interested in the binding of time in materials and places that reveals the stone in a flower and the flower in a stone.”
“My first night works used the low temperatures to freeze ice to ice, ice to stone. They were completed by early morning and seen in daylight. I have now become interested in the night itself — work made at night, for the night and to be seen in the dark. Night totally changes my perception and has helped me ‘see’ more clearly during the day.”
“I do not simply cover rocks. I need to understand the nature that is in all things. Stone is wood, water, earth, grass… I am interested in the binding of time in materials and places that reveals the stone in a flower and the flower in a stone.”
“My first night works used the low temperatures to freeze ice to ice, ice to stone. They were completed by early morning and seen in daylight. I have now become interested in the night itself — work made at night, for the night and to be seen in the dark. Night totally changes my perception and has helped me ‘see’ more clearly during the day.”
January 14, 2013
"Most (if not all) that I need can be found within walking distance of my home. When travelling I regret the loss of a sense of change. I see differences not changes. Change is best experienced by staying in one place."(my emphasis: my line for my 2013-Books found poem)
Some of my favorites in this book were where he worked with the same place in different seasons.
June 26, 2008
One of my favorite artists ... he creates structures in nature with nothing added, just stone, ice, water, leaves, wood ... with gobs of patience and talent. Many of his pieces only exist in photographs because they go back to nature as intended. Check him out in the DVD, "Rivers and Tides."
September 8, 2023
Beautiful book by one of my most appreciated artists. Here he demonstrates his view and use of stone, from creating holes to building walls. Interspersed among the many images of his creations are essays discussing is applications of stone. His unadorned language are the kind of artist statements I wish I saw more of, where he discusses what he sees in stone and why he uses them in his various ways. He doesn't turn them into spiritual mysticisms or existential talismans, although he does tend to personify stone. This personification of nature is what drives him to spend time out in nature, in the most uncomfortable situations, and react to what is around him. In this sense it is spiritual, but he is not trying to preach it. He lives it, and in this way he makes readers want to experience it themselves.
March 16, 2009
“Fixed ideas prevent me from seeing clearly. My art makes me see again what is there, and in this respect I am also rediscovering the child within. In the past I have felt uncomfortable when my work has been associated with children because of the implication that what I do is merely play. Since having children of my own, however, and seeing the intensity with which they discover through play, I have to acknowledge this in my work as well," writes British environmental artist Andy Goldsworthy in his book “Stone.”
Goldsworthy’s message is a wise one. Fixed ideas DO prevent us from seeing. We should all approach each walkabout outdoors with no fixed ideas and the eyes of a child, recapturing our sense of wonder.
Growing up with modest means in the mountains of East Tennessee, our toys were the rocks and sticks we found outside. Often, we would just pile up rocks. Goldsworthy has carried this sense of exploration to a most sublime conclusion, creating works of art that are as beautiful as they are natural.
His book “Stone” is a portfolio of some of his creative explorations with found rocks, sticks, dirt, sand and stones. And although he says he has more failures than successes, his successes are amazing!
Goldsworthy’s message is a wise one. Fixed ideas DO prevent us from seeing. We should all approach each walkabout outdoors with no fixed ideas and the eyes of a child, recapturing our sense of wonder.
Growing up with modest means in the mountains of East Tennessee, our toys were the rocks and sticks we found outside. Often, we would just pile up rocks. Goldsworthy has carried this sense of exploration to a most sublime conclusion, creating works of art that are as beautiful as they are natural.
His book “Stone” is a portfolio of some of his creative explorations with found rocks, sticks, dirt, sand and stones. And although he says he has more failures than successes, his successes are amazing!
December 23, 2009
Goldsworthy is a sculptor, photographer and environmentalist living in Scotland who produces site-specific sculpture and land art situated in natural and urban settings. His art involves the use of natural and found objects, to create both temporary and permanent sculptures which draw out the character of their environment. They are particularly wondrous and beautiful. He explores unfamiliar landscapes, assess how the elements will work for his pieces, and perform what are essentially a set of experiments. His intent is making work that is, as he writes, completely welded to its site.
There is a wonderful DVD about him:
There is a wonderful DVD about him:
January 28, 2010
Another excellent book of his outstanding work, this time in stone.
March 24, 2011
Brilliant photography of nature art.
December 28, 2018
Amazing stuff ...
provides perspective / seeing the "mini-tude" of my minor stone stacking projects against the "magni=tude" of Goldsworthy.
provides perspective / seeing the "mini-tude" of my minor stone stacking projects against the "magni=tude" of Goldsworthy.
January 11, 2016
Goldsworthy's art is so inspiring to me as a Reggio preschool facilitator! So excited to share this with my students!
June 2, 2016
This collection of photos documenting Andy Goldsworthy's unique "nature" sculptures focuses on pieces that he has created with stone.
July 16, 2017
Wonderful work. Impressive.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews