Meet the Maker : Lisa Takahashi
Hello! My name is Lisa Takahashi, and I am a British-Japanese printmaker who lives and works in Somerset. I specialise in relief printmaking, namely linocuts, woodcuts and, more recently, card prints (essentially collagraph relief prints made purely from cut and torn mountboard). My work is mainly landscape-focused and celebrates the shapes and colours found in everyday observations.
Finsbury Park at Dawn, Monoprint, 21 × 26 cm, 2024
Describe your printmaking process.
My number one love is relief printmaking. I started with linocut, but more recently, exploring texture has led me to use wood and card as well as lino. Everything starts with a drawing or a collage, which I work on quite slowly (I use an eraser as much as a pencil, adjusting, changing and developing - and with collage I am constantly recutting and repositioning shapes of colour until everything is placed just right). I then translate the image into a print, transferring the image, cutting the block, and spending a good amount of time trying out different colour palettes during the printing process. I favour the multiblock process because I love my designs to have transparent areas of colour sitting side by side as well as overlapping to create surprising mixes on the paper, something that isn’t possible with reduction printmaking. Colour is a huge part of my practice.
Big Bunch of Daffs, Woodcut, 80 x 60 cm, 2026
How and where did you learn to print?
We did some linocut at secondary school with very hard, old bits of lino that might have been in the cupboard for several decades, and some very blunt tools. After that, though, I didn’t do any linocut printmaking until I was in my mid-twenties, working at Jackson’s and armed with a staff discount that motivated me to buy some lino, Pfeil tools and ink. And I haven’t really looked back since. Apart from the classes I did at secondary school, I have learned everything I do through trial and error, and Holly’s videos on the Handprinted Instagram!
Why printmaking?
I love the tactile nature of cutting into lino, wood and mountboard. I love sharpening tools. I love the crunchy sound of Shina plywood as shavings fall away from the block. I love mixing and rolling colour, and the excitement of peeling back a freshly printed image. I’m also addicted to the problem-solving nature of developing a design, and to the element of the unexpected, which seems to be inevitable with relief printmaking.
Lacock Abbey, Woodcut, 22 x 28 cm, 2026
Where do you work?
I moved into my studio in a tiny village on the Somerset Levels, called Isle Brewers, last year. I named it Isle Print Studio. It is big enough for me to run workshops, which I’ve never been able to do in my own space before. I love sharing ideas in the place where I make my own work, because I feel completely at one with my creativity there, and the workshops just flow and are hugely rewarding to run. I have an Albion press, plenty of glass-topped tables ready for inking up on, and some vintage trestle tables which are just the right height to draw at. It’s very peaceful and it’s my happy place. I’m very grateful for it.
Describe a typical day in your studio.
I usually arrive between 10am and 11am, and leave at around 8.30pm, but other than that, there’s no such thing as a typical day. Because I work on Community Projects for Jackson’s, teach workshops in various venues as well as in the studio, write articles for Pressing Matters, demonstrate painting and printmaking techniques, and also sell and make my own prints, the demands on my day are ever-changing.
Today I began by testing out Shina plywood printing on some Awagami Hakuho Select paper. I wanted to see if the grain would print sufficiently for a print I’m working on, and hooray, it did. Then I went to interview an artist for the Ask An Artist podcast, and now I’m answering these questions. Later I’ll do some writing for Pressing Matters on Hokusai, and hopefully also have five minutes to do some more printing. Tomorrow, I’m hoping to dedicate most of the day to cutting some Shina plywood for a new print, but only after a Jackson’s meeting!
How long have you been printmaking?
I have been printmaking seriously since around 2009. Alarmingly to me, that’s 17 years!
Avon Gorge, Woodcut, 22.5 x 28.5 cm, 2026
What inspires you?
The challenge of trying to make a two-dimensional image out of something that isn’t a flat, two-dimensional image. It might be movement - some cyclists hurtling down a road, or a memory of being on a boat, or a hedgehog seen waddling across my garden in half-light. I like to make prints of small moments that excite me, and attempt to capture the feeling of witnessing or experiencing that moment as well as the moment itself (if that makes any sense at all!).
City Cycling, Linocut, 70 x 50 cm, 2025
What is your favourite printmaking product?
I love clearing up with Gamsol!
What have you made that you are most proud of?
I made a print called The Chain Gang 12 years ago and submitted it to the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, where it was duly rejected. But I was really pleased with how it came out, so I submitted it the following year and it was accepted, and they made postcards of it to sell in the shop. The edition of 75 sold out on Buyer’s Day. It was selected by the late, great Norman Ackroyd.
It was a simple and bold print that I think I could only have made with a lot less experience of printmaking. These days I overthink things too much and spend a lot of time trying to forget what I know about print in order to reclaim some of that spontaneity and childlike creativity.
The Chain Gang, linocut on Fabriano Rosaspina paper, 70 x 50 cm, 2014
Where can we see your work? Where do you sell?
I am exhibiting during Somerset Art Weeks this year at Venue 13, The Orangery at Nynehead Court (19th September–4th October). I will also be at the Dulwich Picture Gallery Maker’s Market on 27th September. I’m also working on a bespoke print for Dulwich Picture Gallery which will be for sale in their gift shop during their forthcoming exhibition of Hokusai’s 36 Views of Mount Fuji, which opens in October.
I’ll also be at the Ink Paper and Print Fair in Topsham, Devon, on 18th October. I have a woodcut print, Merry Go Round, in an exhibition titled New Editions at Sheffield’s Millennium Gallery, curated by fellow printmaker James Green and street artist Kid Acne. I also have a good supply of prints in the Pallant House Gallery Bookshop.
Other than all that(!), I have a website, and I do a lot of regional print fairs across the UK, so look out for me if you have a print fair near you coming up!
Merry Go Round, Woodcut on Fabriano Rosaspina Paper, 70 x 50 cm, 2025
What will we be seeing from you next?
The print I am currently working on is the piece for Dulwich Picture Gallery, inspired by Hokusai. It’s a huge honour to have been asked to make this print. The Dulwich Picture Gallery is one of my favourite galleries in the world, and having the opportunity to explore my own Japanese heritage as well as reflect on Hokusai’s 36 Views of Mount Fuji is really a dream commission for me. I’m trying my best not to mess it up!
Do you have any advice for other printmakers and creatives?
For emerging artists: Make as many opportunities as you can and try not to take the rejections personally - there’s an audience out there for what you do, but sometimes it takes time to find them.
For mid-career artists: don’t be afraid to be selective with opportunities, and remember that work/life balance is important.
For everyone: don’t forget to play.
Artist & studio photos photographed by Jo Hounsome.
To see more from Lisa, follow her on Instagram and Facebook!
Feeling inspired? Take part in one of our relief printmaking workshops here in Bognor Regis!
Alternatively, if you'd like to try out relief printmaking at home then visit our website where we have everything you need to get started!