Bird-a-thon

Top Individual Fundraiser Award

Winter Shelter, hand-painted stone lithograph by Gordon Morrison.

The Stone Lithograph
Acclaimed natural history illustrator Gordon Morrison has generously donated the 2010 Bird-a-thon Top Individual Fundraiser award – “Winter Shelter,” an original Stone Lithograph which the Artist has hand-colored specially for this event. The original measures 14" x 18" and will be framed by the Powers Gallery.

The Artist
Gordon Morrison is a well known natural history illustrator who has written and illustrated five children’s books and illustrated numerous natural history books for older readers. His hope is that the “work, in some small way, would help others be more aware and appreciative of the natural world.” The children’s books he has written and illustrated include A Drop of Water, Nature in the Neighborhood, Pond, Oak Tree and Bald Eagle. His children’s books have won numerous awards, including the John Burroughs Book List Award, Kirkus Reviews Best Children’s Books, Outstanding Science Trade Books for Children, and the Julia Ward Howe Children’s Book Prize.

Gordon Morrison’s illustrations grace the pages of The Birdwatcher’s Companion, by Chris Leahy, Newcomb’s Wild Flower Guide (some 1,300 botanical illustrations), and three Peterson Field Guides (Eastern Forests and two Western Forests). He has created art for educational displays for New England Wildflower Society, Missouri Botanical Gardens, Boston Zoological Society and Mass Audubon. He is also the illustrator of the beloved Curious Naturalist series for the Mass Audubon Society publication ‘Sanctuary.’ He wrote and illustrated the Birds in the Garden series for Horticulture Magazine (1991-99), and illustrated the Native Americans series on plants, also for Horticulture (1988-95). Gordon presents programs for children and/or adults. His programs combine art and nature, and are based on his field studies, original art from his books and his experiences.

Visit Gordon Morrison's website

The Process
Stone lithography is a printing technique developed by Alois Senefelder in the late 1790s. It is the precursor to offset lithography used for mass production today, but is an artisanal craft process. For stone lithography, the artist uses a specially prepared piece of limestone, ground down and leveled to accept a drawing. The artist draws on the limestone using a lithograph crayon or grease pencil. The printer then treats the stone with a solution of gum Arabic and nitric acid. This seals all areas of the stone other than the drawing. The printer then washes the drawing off the stone using turpentine.

The drawing is at this point is not visible to the naked eye, but grease from the crayon or pencil remains in the stone. The stone is then treated with water and then inked. The grease absorbs the ink, while the water repels the ink. The stone is run through a press, allowing the printer to make multiple “originals” of the drawing. After a limited number of prints are run, the stone is ground down for re-use so that no further prints of the drawing are possible. Only 180 black and white prints of “Winter Shelter” were produced, on Rives French paper stock, imported. The artist has hand-colored one of these one-of-a-kind lithographs for the Mass Audubon 2010 Bird-a-thon.

The Printer
George C. Miller and Son of New York produced stone lithographs for many well known artists in addition to Gordon Morrison, including Albert Sterner, George Bellows, Rockwell Kent, John Sloan and Childe Hassan. The firm, no longer in existence, was, according to Gordon Morrison, “the founding family of the art of stone lithography in America.”