Nicky Sanderson

About me

I am a professional artist, living and working by the sea in Edinburgh. My practice encompasses mixed media pieces, hangings and prints currently inspired by the action of water on beaches, the intertidal zone and the coasts of Scotland. I’m interested in raising awareness of the conservation of marine species and of coastal contamination. Much of my work is made on the beach, using seaweeds and found detritus. I love to find the layers underneath a subject, its ’in-stress’, the detail of how it was made and what it communicates to us. Sometimes to do this we just have to sit still and be present, just look and listen. Pay attention.

I am a graduate of Gray’s School of Art, Aberdeen and The Slade School of Fine Art, London where I studied printmaking. A travelling scholarship to Mexico sparked a life-long relationship with colour, quirkiness and the Spanish language. For many years I combined my art practice with teaching adults in Edinburgh and leading workshops around Scotland and Spain.

I’m a professional member of Visual Arts Scotland and an active member of Edinburgh Printmakers and the Society of Scottish Artists. My last solo exhibition was by invitation of the Scottish Arts Club in Edinburgh, and I recently won the St Cuthbert’s Mill Award for my screen prints at the Printmakers of Scotland Festival.

Nicky is the tutor for the Sense of Place painting experience in the Outer Hebrides.

Specialities

Plein air painting
Watercolour, inks and mixed media
Making papers for collage
Printing
Layers of texture using multi media
The magic of colour
Making drawings in the landscape
Lettering

Things I love

Being alive in this extraordinarily beautiful country of Scotland with its boundless inspiration….sharing that joy with others to create work that somehow encapsulates small parts of it.

Art is not what you see, but what you must make others see. {Edgar Degas}

Meet Nicky in her studio:

Thank you for teaching me that different materials and liquids produce results that can invoke a sense of place. Love Heather {Heather, England, Sense of Place, Outer Hebrides, August 2025}

Am overwhelmed with inspiration of this place, this experience. Thank you for giving me a starting place on a blank page….truly a sense of place in many ways! Janet XO {Janet, Canada, Sense of Place, Outer Hebrides, August 2025}