Welcome to Janet Wissmann's STONE LITHOGRAPHS gallery! All the stone lithograph prints on this page are for sale. To students: if you are taking a stone lithography class, you may find that owning one of these original stone litho prints will be helpful; they can provide superior instructional reference. These original prints would also make great donations to Conservation Club auctions and banquets, and would make wonderful gifts for anyone who loves birds and wildlife. Be sure to click on various pictures to enlarge them and see the marvelous detail. Please give us a call if you would like to see more photographs or details on a given piece, or if you would like to make a purchase. Thank you for visiting!

FOR SALE
Great Horned Owl -Original Stone Lithograph

Great Horned Owl -Hand-pulled original stone lithographic print by Janet L. Wissmann. -- $145 - matted and prepared for framing. $110 unmatted.
THIS ONE IS A REAL KNOCKOUT! It's rich and velvety, beautifully framed by the mats and the white bevels where the mats are cut. Includes double rag matting of dark olive over black. Mounted with hinges on acid-free backing. Edition size: 12 s/n prints on Rives BFK gray rag. Finished matted size 16x16". This is a spectacular piece, especially when framed in a simple thin black frame (not included). You won't be disappointed! If you have any questions about this print, if you would like to see more photos please feel free to contact me.
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Matted print: dark olive over black; archival materials. Click picture to enlarge.

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In Stone Lithography the artist draws the image directly onto a specially-prepared flat piece of smooth limestone from Bavaria.
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FOR SALE
Original Hand-pulled Stone Lithograph
Three Red-tailed Hawks

Three Red-tailed Hawks -Original hand-pulled stone lithograph by Janet L. Wissmann -- $200. unmatted
These three poses are of the same Red-tailed Hawk which was a wildlife rescue animal. The bird's wing had been injured so badly by a collision with a car that he could not be released back into the wild. He became a bird that the wildlife rehabilitator used for educational outreach programs at nature centers and forest preserves in Central Illinois. This bird is the same species as New York City's famous Red-Tail, "Pale Male", who nests on a building across from Central Park.
The print actually has more margin than the picture above shows; image size is ~9.5 x 11.5 inches; paper size is 14 x 18. Paper is 100% cotton rag (d'Arches). Shipping is additional.
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Click on the pictures above to see the fantastic detail and texture in this piece.












Sepia Red-Tailed Hawk -Original Stone Lithograph

Sepia Red-Tailed Hawk -Original hand-pulled stone lithograph. This print has a smaller outer dimension than the three-hawk print, but the head study is the same size; it's printed from the same drawing on the stone that was used for the 3-head prints. The image is approx. 4x6" ; paper size is 10x11" .  Printed with sepia-colored ink on cream d'Arches rag paper. Looks good in an oval mat.
Edition: 9 s/n . Only one print remaining.  $155 plus shipping. 

Red Tailed Hawk original stone lithograph

maine coon lithograph phoenix

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In stone lithography, the stone is considered to be merely a tool, and so each print is called an original print, even though multiple prints are usually pulled.
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FOR SALE
Original Hand-Pulled Stone Lithographic Print
Phoenix -Maine Coon Cat

Phoenix -Original Stone Lithograph by Janet L. Wissmann -- $145.
Look at that detail! Janet drew this Maine Coon Cat with a lithographic pencil onto the finely-ground Bavarian limestone slab, and the prints turned out so well that the college instructor purchased two for his family! Edition: 40 s/n prints on d'Arches rag. Paper size 10x14" $145 print alone; $180 includes double-mat of creamy white archival rag mat (16x20 inches).
How to purchase this original stone lithograph »
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Click images to enlarge for detail.
For no extra charge, the artist will hand-color the eyes in your choice of blue, green, or amber.

MAINE COONS - By the way, if you like Maine Coon Cats then you may be interested in the original Maine Coon Cat watercolor painting on this page »

Maine Coon cat art, Maine Coon Cat print, Maine Coon Cat drawing, Maine Coon Cat stone lithograph, Cat stone lithographic print for sale

FOR SALE
Rockome -Original Stone Lithograph

Rockome -Original hand-pulled stone lithographic print by Janet L.Wissmann
Image 6.5 x 4.5 inches Paper size 10.5 x 8.5 inches
Edition is limited to 6 signed & numbered original prints plus one Artist's Proof. Printed on d'Arches rag paper. $100. Feel free to contact me if you have questions or would like more photos of this piece.
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More about the Lithograph Rockome
Click on images to see the beautiful details of this little print.
In central Illinois, three hours south of Chicago, there is a low-tech amusement park in Amish country called Rockome Gardens. This slow-paced park hosts an annual autumn event called Horse Farming Days. During this event visitors can learn how steam threshers work, make a sisal rope by hand, or attempt to plow with a team of draft horses. Janet Wissmann's stone lithographic print, Rockome, depicts part of the bridle of a draft horse at Rockome Gardens. I drew this image in reverse directly onto the surface of the lithographic limestone slab, using special grease pencils similar to china markers. After treatment with several chemicals, a sheet of paper was placed over the inked image and the stone was run through a press. Prints made in this manner are called hand-pulled prints. Read more about stone lithography at the bottom of this page, and come back up here to view Rockome with a new appreciation. This gentle and quiet little work of art is a nice study in texture, shades of gray, and abstract form. Click on the detail photos above to view the fine details of this artwork.
Rockome -Original hand-pulled stone lithographic print by Janet L.Wissmann.
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FOR SALE
Grizzly Bears -Original Hand-pulled Stone Lithograph

Grizzly Bears -Original Stone Lithograph by Janet L. Wissmann. Edition 8 s/n prints on d'Arches cotton. Image approximately 9.5 x 9.5 inches. -- $145 print; $180 matted print.

Matting is dark olive top mat, black inner mat; all materials are conservation/acid-free.
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More about the Lithograph Grizzly Bears
Click images to see the details.

Janet writes,
"Here's something really interesting. Click on the right detail image above to see the beautiful watercolor-like effect where the rocks spill onto the bottom border of the print (near my signature). This was done with diluted liquid tusche and salt crystals. I love the manner in which the tusche-and-salt process creates a three-dimensional effect, with all the sharp edges and 'granulation' that watercolorists love."
We cut our own mats in the artist's studio, so matting colors can be somewhat flexible to suit your needs; in this case we've shown dark olive over black, but another suggestion is creamy white over creamy white.
How to purchase this original stone lithograph »

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Most of Janet Wissmann's stone lithograph images are drawn onto the stone with a lithographic pencil.
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FOR SALE
Puffins -Original Stone Lithograph

Puffins -Original hand-pulled stone lithograph by Janet L. Wissmann. - $100.

Edition 6 signed & numbered prints, plus two Artist's Proofs, on d'Arches cotton rag paper. Image size 7.5 x 10.25 inches; paper size 8 x 11.25 inches.
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More about the Lithograph, Puffins
Regarding Puffins above, Janet writes, "I used a variety of media to indicate texture and darkness of the volcanic rock in this little stone lithograph showing three Atlantic Puffins perched on a rock ledge.
"First, I dribbled and spattered liquid mask onto the stone into places I wanted to keep white, including the cutouts of the three little puffins. A soft lithographic crayon dragged sideways across and down the paper lent the bold jagged strokes, and tusche (an india-ink like substance) was painted with a brush into the darkest blacks.
"Then I scratched and scraped the drawn stone surface with a razor blade to remove the threadlike areas around the ledge so that it would stand out a bit more from the deep black behind it. I washed away the mask that I had applied earlier. This mask prevented any of the media from touching the stone, so the result was spots that would hold no ink during the inking process later and thus would appear white in the final prints. Finally, I used a lithographic pencil and tusche to fill in the details in the tiny puffins. Be sure to click on the pictures to see them enlarged.

"My experience with watercolors helped me in creating this charming little print, as watercolor forces you to do some planning before you begin to work on a piece. Most of these prints even have a deckle edge or two, just like an original watercolor painting--a nice touch that shows the print is hand-pulled. "
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Janet L. Wissmann, Watercolorist
Soldiers Grove, Wisconsin
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About Stone Lithography

I've lifted the summary below from Wikipedia. After reading about stone lithography, I hope you will look again at my beautiful original lithographic prints with a new appreciation for the effort, the skill, the art, and the science that went into making them!

In lithography the entire print block comes in contact with the paper sheet, and a chemical process confines the ink to the desired image on the block. This contrasts with relief printing where the ink is carried on a raised image, and intaglio, where it lies in the grooves of an engraved image. Because the print block is flat rather than relief, lithography is described as a planographic print process.

Lithography works because of the repulsion of oil and water. The image is drawn on the surface of the print block with an oil-based medium. The range of oil-based mediums is endless but the dexterity of the image relies on the lipid content of the material being used--its ability to withstand water and acid. Following the placement of the image is the application of an acid emusified with gum arabic. The function of this emulsion is to create a salt layer directly around the image area. The salt layer seeps into the pores of the stone, completely enveloping the original image. This process is called etching. Using lithographic turpentine, the printer then removes the greasy drawing material, leaving only the salt layer; it is this salt layer which holds the skeleton of the image's original form. When printing, the stone or plate is kept wet with water. Naturally the water is attracted to the layer of salt created by the acid wash. Ink that bears a high lipid content is then rolled over the surface. The water repels the grease in the ink and the only place for it to go is the cavity left by the original drawing material. When the cavity is sufficiently full, the stone and paper are run through a press which applies even pressure over the surface, transferring the ink to the paper and off the stone.

Lithography was invented by Alois Senefelder in Bohemia in 1798, and it was the first new printing process since the invention of relief printing in the fifteenth century. In the early days of lithography, a smooth piece of limestone was used (hence the name "lithography"—"lithos" is the ancient Greek word for stone). After the oil-based image was put on the surface, acid burned the image onto the surface; gum arabic, a water soluble solution, was then applied, sticking only to the non-oily surface and sealing it. During printing, water adhered to the gum arabic surfaces and avoided the oily parts, while the oily ink used for printing did the opposite.

Within a few years of its invention, the lithographic process was used to create multi-color printed images, a process known by the middle of the 19th century as Chromolithography. A separate stone was used for each colour, and a print went through the press separately for each stone. The main challenge was of course to keep the images aligned (in register). This method lent itself to images consisting of large areas of flat colour, and led to the characteristic poster designs of this period. Many fine works of chromolithographic printing were produced in America and Europe.

A very detailed description of the stone lithographic preparation and printing process, with photos, can be found here.

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Dogs »



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Horses »



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Birds »

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Janet L. Wissmann, Watercolorist
Soldiers Grove, Wisconsin
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Please note that all images on this site are copyrighted by the artist and may not be reproduced in any manner without permission.