I am a Scottish artist who has enjoyed a varied career. I graduated from Glasgow School of Art 1993, and worked as a bouncer, a chef, a stonemason and a blacksmith before returning to art 1999 to set up Perfect Circle, a commercial fine art company. Perfect Circle ran for 15 years, alongside Maryhill Art School which I set up with two other tutors. At the same time I set up and ran Strange Frames, a bespoke framing company. I spent 15 years collaborating with my hero, the Scottish artist and writer Alasdair Gray on his visual work and public projects. I’ve also worked for Oscar winning film designers, made huge mosaics and murals acted as the arts consultant for infrastructure projects. I now live in the countryside working from a studio that I built during lockdown, and painting the Scottish landscape among other passions.
I’m making a sculpture in Maryhill / Ruchill / Gilshochill. It’s of a Beithir, one of the Fuath. It’s designed to be made and then mosaiced by the three communities that are being rejoined by the new wonderful bridge at Stockingfield Junction. Glasgow Live – The Beithir begins! https://www.glasgowlive.co.uk/news/glasgow-news/mythical-serpent-form-centrepiece-new-24829827
New Studio
The Smugglers Club. www.thesmugglersclub.co.uk
The Unlikely Clan – Dance once with everyone. A group show with 4 other figurative artists. Cherylene Dyer, Frank McNab, Jane Gardiner and Todd Garner
Strange Path. solo show.
Tam o’Shanter.
Lost Castles. solo show.
Joined the Distillers Art, an independent bottlers with a keen interest in art. I am the commissioning artist,
Joined the SOGO gallery as a director and helped set it up and get it running.
Started the Cloud Diaries project.
The mural for drawing room at Chivas’s private hotel in Keith.
Still water, solo show.
Peatzeria Restaurant on Islay. A restarant mural and painting and signage for a great friend.
Outlaw King – Concept artist. Working with Adam squires and the Oscar winning Don Burt.
Rouk Skies solo show.
Artworks for the Banff Springs hotel, Banff
The buttercup summer.
A mural for the Castle terrace restaurant, Edinburgh.
Murals for the set of Trainspotting 2
Caught light, solo show.
The first Shortt Alba rally.
Bravarian Brau Haus
Islay private house mosaic.
A series of artworks to decorate the headquarters of the Scottish Leather Group and to tell the story of it’s 200 year history. And some abstract works for the boardroom
That night at the Barrowlands watching Teenage Fanclub with Sanj and Al.
Artworks for the public areas of the Old course hotel in St Andrews.
Nichol and his lovely wife Sue build an eco house.
A portrait of David Dunbar, the president of the Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland.
Collaboration with Alasdair Gray on the Western baths mural. https://thewesternbaths.co.uk
Inaugrual exhibition of the facebook group “The Scottish Arts Council”
The Hillhead Subway mural. Alasdair Gray was asked to make a large mural at Hillhead Subway station. As he decided to base it on one of my old drawings, a mural I had done in the Grosvenor café it was decided that he and his team would draw it and
Appeared on stage at Òran Mór with for the Glasgow production of Fleck as part of the Margins Festival. Possibly the only time I will ever grace a stage, and to do it with Alasdair Gray, Alan Bissett, Allan Wilson, Zoe Strachan, Louise Welsh, Chiew Siah-Tei, Rodge Glass, Carl MacDougall
The Opera paintings for La Bonne Auberge in Glasgow.
A portrait of Professor John Brown OBE the Astronomer Royal for Scotland.
Worked closely with Paul Buchanan (formerly of the Blue Nile) to make his first major artwork. This was a large artwork for Kelvinhall subway station. It took the form of an elegant set of lyrics that could be read in many ways and from many directions (depending on how you
Paintings for the Piersland House hotel.
The Indigo Hotel. A bespoke series of artworks for the new Indigo hotel in Glasgow. A series of murals, curated artworks and commissioned photography. For the initimable Maurice Taylor.
The Fleck backdrop for the Edinburgh book festival. Alasdair was asked to create a closing event for the 2011 the Edinburgh book festival. His proposal was to have some of his friends read his play “Fleck” (his version of Goethe’s Faust) which had at this point not been performed. This
A painting for the Interior minister of Kuwait.
Painting the Eastern Gable with Alasdair Gray. Including the incident of the unfortunate bucket.
Photocollage murals for EKGTA in East Kilbride.
Artworks for the fourth iteration of the Corinthian. Including the victorian mosaic for the Bootleg bar in tandem with Graven Images.
Moved into the Lochburn road studio, established the Strange Frames studio and the Maryhill Art School.
Maryhill Art School. A small independent art school set up Cynthia Bowles, Martin MacInally and Nichol Wheatley. It was a great wee art school which had about 450 students at it’s peak. It was dedicated to traditional Drawing and painting skills.
The decorations for the Cornwall hotel and Spa. Nichol and his team were commissioned to create a series of artworks for the Hotel and Spa.
Strange Frames begins!
The decoration of a five star hotel in Bulgaria. This involved being falsely accused of being an international art smuggler, the foreign office and a 10 year ban from Croatia…..
The Lily restaurant Bothwell.
A mosaic for a private house on Islay.
The actor’s poker game, the west end, Glasgow.
Working with Alasdair Gray at Òran Mór.
Original artworks for the Folio group of hotels. This was a long commission that spanned 3 years and 28 hotels. In total about 3000 original artworks were made for this client.
Artworks for the second iteration of Corinthian, Glasgow.
Nichol was asked to set up an exchange program between the Glasgow School of Art and the art association of the Vermillion coast in Languedouc Rousillion. Nichol took part in the first exchange in Collioure with other visiting artists from Germany and Spain
The ceiling of St Aloysious. Nichol and his team were commissioned by Page and Park to decorate the ceiling of St Aloysius church which became the most technical piece of research that he has (so far) ever had to undertake.
The Hurricane restaurants.
The East end tale – Royal Glasgow Infirmary, Glasgow. A large photographic collage telling the story of the RGI and celebrating the Hippocratic Oath.
Holiday Inn Excel. London
The Scotsman Hotel. Nichol and his team were commissioned to do about 2000 original artworks for the newly commissioned hotel at the offices of the old Scotsman newspaper. This involved original artworks, murals and tromp l’oeil work.
Arta – a series of antiqued reproduction paintings for the fabulous Arta restaurant. They’re still there.
Crieff Hydro – The Victorian pool. Nichol and his team were commissioned to do a series of murals for the Victorian pool at Crieff Hydro.
Owner and Director of Perfect Circle Art. A fine art studio modelled on the classical studios of antiquity. The purpose of this was to improve his technique by taking commercial projects that would lead to learning outcomes. Perfect Circle handles fine art projects up to the value of about £500,000.
Murals at the Grosvenor café. For years Nichol and his flatmates ate at the local café called the Grosvenor Cafe owned by Larry and Ghislaine Winning. In 1999 Larry asked Nichol to paint some murals for the café. One of the murals was a drawing of the west end which
Paintings for the first iteration of the Corinthian club.
Painting and mosaics for Bar ce lona pub Sauchiehall street.
A painting of the new housing office in Glasgow. Nichol and another artist shared the commission to do the artwork for the new building as they were the only two who entered. The building was named after John Wheatley, the housing minister in the first labour government. He is Nichol’s
Tutor at the continuing education department of Glasgow School of Art. During this period Nichol taught some amazing artists including Muriel Barclay (link to https://www.murielbarclay.com ) and Judith Bridgeland (link to http://www.jibridgland.com ).
Between Art school and 1999 Nichol had a series of jobs that included being a stonemason, a blacksmith and working in kitchens. He did a series of hand-drawn adverts for a bike shop that were the most stolen item on the subway in Glasgow at the time. He ran a
Glasgow School of Art, Drawing and Painting department.
Born. Edinburgh. Scotland
The Tam o’Shanter cycle of murals at Òran Mór.
Painting the ceiling of the auditiorium at Òran Mór for Alasdair Gray.
Manufacturing the Hillhead Subway Mural for Alasdair Gray, which was based on one of Nichol Wheatley’s drawings.
Ceiling of St Aloysious – in conjunction with Page and Park.
Portrait of David Dunbar – President of the Royal Incorporation of Architects Scotland.
Murals for set of Trainspotting 2.
Concept Artist for Outlaw King, the largest film production to date in Scotland.
