Catherine Ade

Riverside MillMaker Showcase GalleryExhibition

29 Dec

Written By Laura Wasley

Maker Showcase

Printmaking: Lithography

‘a place to be in our minds together’

Catherine Ade is an artist exploring drawing and lithographic printmaking. Through an autobiographical lense her practice explores the dualities of identity, memory and belonging. She explores place and the human connection to it through family history, and her personal family connection to the land. She is drawn to states of transition; between exterior and interior worlds; psychological and physical, absence and presence, surface and depth. 

Catherine paints and draws directly on to the lithographic limestone with traditional crayons and tusche; a process which unites the drawn and painted mark. The use of water-based washes occur as a material and a metaphor; rain, tears, vessels expanding the notion of fluidity of memories and cycles of nature. The lithographic wash is applied to the stone and left to dry naturally; letting the reticulated patterns form their paths which follow the movement of the hand that applies them.

The etching process in lithography chemically changes the surface of the matrix and the image is printed from the flat surface of the plate or stone. This is called planographic printing. The image is chemically processed with gum arabic and nitric acid solution which transforms the drawing into the printing matrix. During printing the stone is constantly kept damp and the water forms a protective barrier on the non-drawn area which only allows the inky roller to touch the drawn areas. Each colour layer requires a different stone to be used, and this is a slow and meditative process which allows many different visual effects to be obtained. Catherine is the co - author of Lithography: An Artists Guide and runs The Lemonade Press in Bristol.

28 March - 9 May 2026

Maker Showcase Gallery

About the exhibitor

Catherine Ade | Printmaking | Bristol

Catherine's practice is rooted in drawing and lithographic printmaking. At her studio in Bristol, she draws directly on to the lithographic limestone or ball grained aluminium plates, where her final images are resolved.

The labour intensive processes in lithography and their endless technical possibilities are a key element of her practice. Mixing inks, chemically processing the matrix and printing her multi layered images by hand form part of the creative process.

Catherine has a particular interest in the 'seen-unseen', paying attention to our wordless and silent experiences, our interior worlds and private lives as highly charged places - both in terms of their physical properties, their powerful symbolism, and their ever changing role in the topography of personal identity.

Catherine studied at UWIC in Cardiff, UWE in Bristol and Tamarind Institute for Lithography, USA. She previously worked at The Curwen Studio, London and now runs The Lemonade Press collaborative lithographic studio in Bristol.

Website: catherineade.com
Instagram: @catherineadeartist