Alison Friend is a British artist known for her warmly observed, anthropomorphic animal portraits - oil paintings that combine the craft of the Old Masters with a distinctly contemporary wit. Her work has attracted collectors worldwide and earned her exhibitions across the UK, the US and beyond, including the London Art Fair, the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, and Frieze Seoul.
Earlier this year, Alison released two new limited editions - 'Storytime' and 'Cupcake' - each available in two sizes, signed and numbered by Alison herself. This is the story of how we produced them, from the moment the original paintings arrived at our Manchester studio to the moment the editions left for collectors around the world.
Stage 1 - Photographing the originals
Every limited edition starts here.
Before a single print is made, David photographs the original paintings under controlled studio lighting. Colour accuracy at this stage is everything - we use professional colour calibration equipment to build a precise profile of the original, capturing the texture, tone and brushwork of Alison's paintings as faithfully as possible.
Alison reviews and personally approves every printed proof before we go into production. Nothing moves forward until she is happy with what she sees.
Stage 2 - Giclée printing on archival paper
Once Alison has approved the proofs, we create the editions on our 12 ink Canon large format printer, on Smooth Rag archival paper - a beautiful matt surface that captures the depth and texture of her brushwork with exceptional detail.
Every sheet is then trimmed on our Zünd flatbed machine, to an accuracy of 0.03mm. For collectors, that precision matters - every edition is cut to exactly the same size, making framing straightforward and consistent across the whole run.
Stage 3 - Artist signing and certificates of authenticity
Alison came into the studio to sign and number every edition by hand.
Every print in this edition carries her signature in pencil on the border, along with its unique edition number. Each one also comes with a certificate of authenticity, secured with a unique hologram sticker, produced and printed by us here in the studio.
Stage 4 - Packing and worldwide dispatch
The final stage is packing - and it gets as much care as everything that came before it.
Each print is placed face down on tissue paper, wrapped gently around an archival core tube, and the certificate of authenticity is rolled alongside it so the collector receives everything together. The tube is sealed, labelled, and marked with our artwork warning sticker and custom branding before it goes out.
This edition shipped to collectors across the UK, the US, and beyond - dispatched within days of Alison's final signing session.
The result
From Alison's original paintings to collectors' walls - that is what we do at Klein Editions. Every stage handled in-house, every detail considered, every edition produced to the same standard we would want as collectors ourselves.
If you are an artist thinking about producing your own limited edition prints, we would love to talk.
Alison Friend periodically releases new limited editions through her own online shop at alisonfriend.com. Her editions sell quickly - we recommend subscribing to her newsletter at her website to be the first to hear about new releases.
You can follow Alison on Instagram at @mcfriendy.
Our work can be seen on Instagram at @kleineditions.
