THE life and times of one of the region's finest artists are in the spotlight this week in a new biography.

Josefina de Vasconcellos, Her Life And Art by Margaret Lewis tells the story of the internationally renowned Lake District sculptress.

Very few women have been successful in this demanding sphere where craft, technology and artistic inspiration meet, but Josefina, born in England in 1904, is one of that small group.

The new book tells the story of the influences and development of her work, its artistic inspiration and the boundless energy, love and creativity that Josefina has packed into her long life, much of it spent in Langdale and Ambleside.

Josefina is still carving in her nineties, and versions of her best-known work Reconciliation now stand outside Coventry Cathedral, in the Hiroshima Peace Park, at the site of the Berlin Wall and in the grounds of Stormont Castle, Belfast.

Many of her other works are in churches and cathedrals including St Paul's, and in private homes and collections throughout the UK and abroad.

Margaret Lewis's biography is an affectionate account of the life of an extraordinarily compassionate and sharply perceptive woman, whose life spanned the 20th Century and all its horrors, war and turmoil.

Josefina is best known in the Lake District for her personal dynamism and generosity of spirit, qualities which are reflected in the uplifting nature of her work.

Not everyone in this present age can identify quite so easily, however, with her strong religious convictions and the influence they had on her sculpture.

Margaret Lewis's beautifully written and fluent book matches Josefina's art to perfection, and the two have collaborated closely to produce what is surely the most definitive biography yet written about her - candid, fascinating and always disarmingly honest, embracing the happy as well as unhappier periods of her life.

Josefina's heart and soul run through every sentence - her passion for suffering humanity, her deep belief in the power of healing and reconciliation, but most fundamentally of all, her love of natural forms and materials which she shaped into enduring messages for humanity.

Josefina de Vasconcellos, Her Life And Art is published by Flambard Press at £ 10.99.

JR.