Artist Bottling .01: A Collaboration with a Limited Edition Nc’nean Scottish Whisky

The female equivalent of the Scottish prefix “Mc” or “Mac” is “Nic,” meaning “daughter of.” Nc'nean Distillery takes its name from this tradition. Founded on the west coast of Scotland in Drimin on the Movern Peninsula by Annabel Thomas, Nc'nean is proudly female-founded. Through the last half of 2025, I had the pleasure of being their first Artist Bottling collaboration.

The “nean” part of the name comes from Neachneohain, a Gaelic goddess whose name is often interpreted as meaning “Queen of Spirits.”

I’ve been lucky enough to enjoy this delicious Scottish whisky on many evenings with friends. There’s a strong connection between the sustainable whisky and the landscape in which it is organically distilled, with flavours inspired by the surrounding Scottish botanicals.

For the collaboration, I created a painting, The Fundamentals, bringing to life seven local plants found around the distillery: gorse, bog myrtle, hart’s tongue fern, heather, oak, birch and bracken. See if you can spot them all.

The limited edition whisky bottle was sold at Whisky Live in Germany, taking my work across to Europe and the painting was sold to a lovely Nc'nean fan who sourced a limited-edition bottle and later sent me a photo of herself bottling her own Nc'nean cask. I’m so happy the painting went to someone who loves the whisky as much as I do.

Thank you to Sasha and the Nc'nean team for trusting me with this special commission.

The Fundamentals, 2025, Water based oil on linen