Cherry Nichols was born in Cape Town and studied Commercial Art at Cape Technical College. Her watercolour career started in East London, exhibiting and being involved with the East London Fine Arts Society and the Watercolour Society of South Africa. From there she relocated to Pretoria and started teaching and running courses along the Limpopo River as well as the Northern Transvaal for the Department of Cultural Affairs. She became Chairman of the Verwoerdburg Fine Arts Society and furthered her career with solo exhibitions in England, Portugal and Australia.

On her return to Cape Town, she moved to Somerset West, where she became Chairman of the Watercolour Society of South Africa (Western Cape Branch) for 2 years, before they disbanded in the Western Cape. Cherry was founder member and Chairman of the Western Cape Watercolour Group for the first year of it’s inauguration.
Cherry has had many commercial ventures doing commissions for environmental friendly calendars and writing paper. She runs workshops and does demonstrations for various art societies and private groups.

More recently, she won first prize in an international art competition in Brisbane, Australia, and 1st Prize (Cream of the Crop) for the Western Cape Watercolour Group’s 2009 Merit competition. Cherry is once again the Chairman of the Western Cape Watercolour Group, which has its base in Somerset West.  She now resides in Eversdal, Durbanville.