Now, his son Danny Summers, 48, will help carry on his fathers legacy in an installation of work that is a departure from his usual style.
Stone hearts which pay tribute to Llew will be on display at Teddington’s Loudon Farm during the largest sculpture exhibition in the South Island – Sculpture on the Peninsula – which will be held on November 8 to 10.
Danny started "playing around" with sculpting using copper when he was 25.
When his father fell sick about a year before he died, he told Danny to "pull his finger out" and start working with stone.
After Llew handed over his equipment, Danny began cutting, grinding and polishing stone.
Soon after, Danny said to his father, “I’m going to make love hearts for you”.
"Of course he had to put his two cents worth in when he saw them. He told me how to polish them properly."
Danny feels his father has left him a legacy.
"I will never be as good as him but then I’m different. I guess it’s not that my work is not as good. It’s just different."
Danny lives in Oxford and works on Loudon Farm three days a week, doing maintenance and all creative landscaping around the farm.
"I have worked there for 18 years and lived on-site for 10 years. On my days off I am carving," he said.
"I used to work with timber, making tall skinny figures, the opposite of my father’s voluptuous, cuddly figures."
Danny's Stone Hearts will be available for sale at the art exhibition on Loudon Farm, Banks Peninsula. For information visit: www.sculpturenz.co.nz
