Stone Lithography

The Art Scholars Curwen Lithography Bursary

What is Stone Lithography?

Stone lithography is a 200 year old printing process involving the application of greasy inks on to flat limestone slabs, which using a chemical and water process, can then be transferred on to paper using a press. Its advantage over other printing processes is that remarkable levels of detail and tonal range can be produced. Its disadvantage, apparently, is that it’s a laborious process involving the use of heavy stone blocks and their preparation.

Stone Lithography is also highlighted in the Heritage Crafts Red List of endangered crafts.

You may be thinking that the introduction to the process given above has left you none the wiser and that would not be your fault, since the process is one that is new to me also and in fact what follows are my own first tentative steps in its use.

The Curwen Print Study Centre

The Curwen Print Study Centre in Great Thurlow, Suffolk, England is a centre of printmaking excellence, dedicated to providing the facilities and expertise for all types of printmaking. 

The Art Scholars Curwen Lithography Bursary is a fully funded two week residency at the Curwen Print Study Centre with 1-to-1 tuition on the stone lithography process with Stone Lithographer Paul Sharrock and all the equipment and resources needed. Awarded to one art student per year, this year I was fortunate enough to be that student. 

These chances don’t come often in life, so I am very grateful to the Curwen for believing that my work merits this opportunity. Thank you.

‘The Famous American, Mariano Cebellos’, (31.1 × 40.3 cm)
Francisco Goya (1825)

‘Fairground Ride’,
(112 × 76 cm)
Michael Horsley (2012)
Instagram: @michaelhorsleyart

Two very different works. Goya’s work, part of his stone lithograph series ‘The Bulls of Bordeaux’ demonstrating remarkable drawing skills. When drawing on stone, once a mark is made it cannot be erased, so what you are seeing is a drawing done at a first attempt, by an artist drawing largely from memory, as at 79 he was virtually blind.

Horsley’s work I had the great pleasure in seeing at one of his recent exhibitions in Cromer, Norfolk. Lithography, like screenprinting is a layering process, whereby only one colour can be applied at a time. The movement and vibrancy achieved with what appears to be close to fifteen colours and hence fifteen layers, with each layer requiring the same stone to be ground over a period of hours. Its size too, over a metre in height, implying the use of a stone of the same dimensions. If nothing else, I’ll finish the residency with bigger muscles!

Horsley’s work opened my eyes to the considerable potential for stone lithography in contemporary art. 

So…very much looking forward to the opportunity, but with Goya and Horsley as inspirations, I have to confess also a little apprehensive. 

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