Paul Beck trained at Gravesend School of Art and then the Royal College of Art he combines printmaking with watercolour work. He worked in advertising and theatre design before teaching. In Essex he lived at Redgates, Seward’s End, near Saffron Walden while teaching at the Cambridge School of Art.

Lithography is a printing process that uses a flat stone or metal plate on which the image areas are worked using a greasy substance so that the ink will adhere to them, while the non-image areas are made ink-repellent. A printing process based on the fact that grease and water don’t mix. The image is applied to a grained surface (traditionally stone but now usually aluminium) using a greasy medium: such as a special greasy ink. A solution of gum arabic and nitric acid is then applied over the surface, producing water-receptive non-printing areas and grease-receptive image areas. A roller charged with oil-based ink is rolled over the surface, and ink will only stick to the grease-receptive image area. Paper is then placed against the surface and the plate is run through a press. Photographic exposure can be made to a lithographic metal plate too, of say, a linocut.