Description
Ted Fullerton drawing on stone in his home studio, n.d. Image courtesy of the artist.
Clinton Todd, Misty Rouge in the Quiet, 2015, stone lithograph on paper.
Ted Fullerton, Whispering Secrets, 1994, stone lithograph on paper.
Ted Fullerton is a Canadian artist who works in painting, drawing, printmaking, and sculpture and has achieved awards in all four media. As an educator, Fullerton was professor and head of the Fine Art Program at Georgian College, School and Design and Visual Art, from 1978-2013.
Fullerton’s work is primarily symbolic and figurative. The conceptual foundation and ideology within his artistic practice is humanist in nature, emphasizing the notion of belief, purpose, and relationships: being and becoming. His work is exhibited nationally and internationally and is represented in numerous private and public collections. He has been awarded a number of public sculpture commissions across Ontario and has participated in over 65 solo exhibitions and 110 group exhibitions. Recently, Fullerton was invited by the European Cultural Centre to exhibit during the 2022 Venice Biennale.
Clinton Todd achieved his Bachelor of Fine Arts at York University in 2018. He focused on printmaking, mainly stone lithography, as well as oil painting. He previously graduated from Georgian College in Barrie from the Fine Arts Advanced program in 2015 and the Art and Design Fundamentals program in 2012, where he was a student of Fullerton’s. He currently teaches printmaking at Georgian College.
About Stone Lithography:
Stone lithography is a physical and time-consuming medium premised on the principle that grease and water repel each other.
First, the surface of the stone is ground down with an abrasive steel powder to produce a smooth, clean working surface. Next, the artist draws directly onto the stone with an oil-based material, such as lithography crayons or liquid tusche (a material similar to India ink). Gum Arabic – a natural resin – and a small amount of nitric acid are then applied to process the image, fixing it on the stone, and allowing the wet surface to repel ink and the greasy drawing areas to attract it. Next, the image is “washed out,” a process that removes the initial drawing material, before being “rolled up,” a process where ink is rolled onto the wet stone, sticking only to the drawing.
Now ready for printing, the artist uses a roller to ink the stone and it is put through the printing press to transfer the image from the stone to a page. A few test prints, or “proofs,” are printed. Once the artist is happy with the image, the stone is finally ready to print the limited edition, with each print retaining its own individuality. For a multi-colour image, this process is repeated on multiple stones, one for each colour.
