About the Artist

Biography

Nicky Sanderson lives by the sea in Edinburgh and most of her current work is inspired by the beach and marine ecology here. She is a professional artist printmaker who works from her studio at Coburg House in Leith, and from the studio at Edinburgh Printmakers.

The work exhibited here shows the intertidal zone where the waters of the Firth of Forth wash the shore at Portobello. The images are made from direct interaction with the seaweeds found washed in by the tide, and aim to raise awareness of the beauty and fragility of the marine environment.

In other projects, Nicky has highlighted the work being done to restore the seagrass and oysters to the Firth of Forth in order to increase carbon sequestration and improve the habitat for nursery species of fish and marine animals. She is also known for her repurposed Admiralty Marine Charts of the Scottish Coasts, highlighting human intervention and local marine flora and fauna.

Nicky Sanderson is a professional member of Visual Arts Scotland (VAS) and a prize-winning artist at The 2025 Printmakers of Scotland Festival. She exhibits widely and regularly leads courses for the creative travel company Wild at Art Scotland Ltd., involving en plein air information gathering and studio development work, mainly in the Outer Hebrides.

Her formal education was in Printmaking at Gray’s School of Art, Aberdeen and at Post Graduate level at the Slade School of Fine Art in London, following which she was awarded a year’s scholarship by the National Institute of Fine Arts (INBA) to study experimental printmaking in Mexico City.