Printmaking gives me a buzz because it gives me the opportunity to combine my creative streak with a love of practical experimentation fostered during my career as a scientist and teacher. I love that moment when you take the first pull off a new plate!

My inspiration comes from a lifelong love of the natural world and my experiences working as an ecologist, in the water industry in particular. It is no surprise that water and the life within it is a recurring theme in my work and many of my prints feature the wild life habitats and species I worked with in the field. I have a bit of an obsession with rocks and water and trying to portray the effects of light on them. The sea and the life within it remains one of my biggest inpirations.

My process still mirrors my very first attempt at Linocut which was a two block lino where I reduced both blocks. Today, reduction linocutting is still my favourite printmaking method as I like the element of danger but I rarely use traditonal lino as I like to change colours multiple times in my multilayered prints and vinyl floor tiles allow this more easily. I have embraced the challenge of working with wood with a series of woodcut seascapes and wood engravings of the natural world. I also enjoy the rhythm of block printing with hand carved Indian wood blocks.

Igniting student’s passion for print is a great joy and I really enjoy teaching lino and block printing workshops in my studio.

I am a member of Cambridge Open Studios and Cambridge Drawing Society and exhibit at Church Street Gallery in Saffron Walden, Cambridgeshire.

Nina Sage BSc, PGCE.