Clare Bassett

Lithography is my favourite form of printing. My picture is drawn onto a flat piece of limestone. Chemicals are applied to the drawing causing a reaction to take place between the calcium in the limestone and the grease in the litho pencil. This means you can wipe away the original drawing, but bring it back by rolling the stone up in a printing ink. The inked stone goes through the printing press and the image is transferred, in reverse, to the paper.

The grain of the stone is inherent in my drawing. Its surface allows me to produce a fine textured, very tonal mark, unique to this process.

I print off editions of 20 and then hand-colour each print individually, as you might tint a photograph.