Nickola McCoy was born on 25 October 1974 on Grand Cayman, the eldest daughter of eight children born to a Jamaican mother and a Caymanian father. Her art is entirely self taught, a true Cayman artist, her feeling for Caribbean art and culture is self evident.

She has lived most of her life on Grand Cayman in the Cayman Islands and studied briefly in the United States. Her travels have taken her to Russia where she worked with orphaned children and to Cuba where she assisted with medicinal aid and vaccination programmes in under funded hospitals. Her life has seen many varied areas of work including time as a police officer, a dive instructor, a postal worker, an insurance administrator and a teacher.

In 2000, following a spinal injury and three months of immobility and intense physiotherapy, she gave up her then career in insurance. This became a turning point in her life and she began to take her first love, the arts, more seriously. She redirected her focus on the two things she loved most Art and Children, she began working at the St Georges Anglican School with young children teaching motor skills through the practice of art. A year later in 2001 she was asked by the education department to set up an art curriculum for a public primary school, teaching basic art skills for students ages 5-12. Ms. McCoy worked with the George Town primary School for two years as the primary source of art for the entire school.

In 2003 she began volunteering at the National gallery of the Cayman Islands as an outreach art instructor, under the tutorship of Mr. Tony Crosbie and Mrs. Leslie Bigelman, the former director of the National Gallery. In 2004 Ms McCoy was approached by the National Gallery of the Cayman Islands to fill the position of Education and Outreach Facilitator.

After twelve months in this position Ms McCoy relocated to Cornwall in the United Kingdom in order to further her own art education and to continue working in a place that has inspired artistic endeavour for centuries. Her last series entitled "The Black Hat Series" comprised over 40 paintings and has now been sold to private collectors and institutions nad her work continues to appeal to serious collectors and corporate buyers.