Marco Mazzoni recently teamed up with MyFinBec and has put his pencil-based intricate and detailed drawing technique to challenge while producing his limited edition lithograph at Idem studio in Paris. As a part of the Legend exhibition, the Italian artist was challenged to create a lithograph using the traditional technique of painting with a brush onto a slab of limestone using oil based ink, and then scratching in the details using a razor.

As we've mentioned in the past, Marco's art is centered around allegorical figures inspired by Sardinian legends, fairies and witches of nature that come to seduce, enchant, curse or heal. For this lithograph, Marco painted a woman’s face missing the eyes and replaced by white light, being a representation of a Janas, mythical small winged women that have the ability to emit a blinding light. Her face emerges from a cloud of butterflies, as though it has been hidden previously.

Transitioning from pencils to brush, Marco started painting on a stone, creating the outlines for his art just like Matisse, Picasso, Miro, Chagall, Giacometti and many other masters of the 20th century did while creating their art lithography works at the historic print studio. Known for the delicacy of his line work, he used a razor blade to scratch thousands of lines on the butterfly wings inside the main figure he had painted, taking about five full days to finish. This stone was then moved onto a 19th century printing press to create the series of lithographs directly from the stone with Marco's art. The biggest difference between a lithograph printed on stone using this 19th century technology, is that the cotton paper is pressed directly against the actual artwork for the transfer of the image. Creating a direct contact with the hand of the artist, it makes it closer to having an original artwork than most other multiple techniques.

The finished result of this art experiment is a lithograph titled St. Lucia, an edition of 100 with 31 of this edition being hand embellished by the artist with colored pencils. For the hand embellished prints, Marco spent an average of 90 minutes for each print adding details to butterflies. Measuring 60 by 75 centimeters (approx. 24 by 30 inches), on BFK Rives 270g cotton paper, each art print is stamped by the print house, numbered, hand torn edges and then signed by the artist. —Sasha Bogojev