Nichol Wheatley graduated from the drawing and painting department of the Glasgow School of Art and then found that oddly there wasn’t a structured career path for most artists.
Several jobs followed including being a cook and an exhibition installer, he ran pubs and was a bouncer. Latterly during that period he was a stonemason and a blacksmith. After several years of various jobs he set up a commercial fine art company called Perfect Circle Art. The company worked all over the U.K and into Europe and beyond. Perfect Circle ran in tandem with Strange Frames and Maryhill Art School in Glasgow for several years. When he turned 44 he moved back out to Kinrosshire, where he had grown up. There with his wife and kids he built an eco house. They also built a gypsy caravan for his wife to write in. Nichol now paints for himself in an old barn and occasionally goes off to work on feature films or do the occasional mural or mosaic.
When Ewen and George asked if he would join the Distillers’ Art he was delighted. The idea of being the commissioning artist for the company seemed far too much fun to turn down. Nichol knows most of the artistic community in Scotland and a few of the whiskies. The idea of going round Scotland introducing them to each other is great fun.
