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James Paterson

James Paterson was born in Glasgow in 1854, where his father was a prosperous manufacturer. After school James went into the family business but his leisure hours were devoted to art and he attended early morning and evening classes at the Glasgow School of Art. In 1874 he had two works accepted at the Royal Scottish Academy and the following year he exhibited at the Royal Glasgow Institute, enough to persuade his father that he was serious about his art and to be given a small allowance, which enabled him to study in Paris and travel on the continent.

 

James Paterson was a life long friend of W Y McGregor and McGregor’s studio was a meeting place for a number of young artists, who became known as the Glasgow Boys. Various members of the group painted together in East Lothian and later in Kirkcudbright but it was the village of Moniaive in Dumfriesshire that attracted Paterson. He first came in the late eighteen seventies and so much liked the surrounding countryside that he settled here following his marriage in 1884. His parents bought the couple a small cottage, Kilniess on the edge of the village and James employed his friend John James Burnet to enlarge the property and add a studio. From then on local scenes by Paterson featured in all the exhibitions in which the Boys took part. His work was also exhibited abroad, particularly in Munich.

 

Moniaive and the surrounding countryside, the valley of the Nith and the Solway coast provided inspiration for the artist for many years and unlike many of the Glasgow Boys Paterson was happy to find new possibilities in the familiar painting grounds of the local area. This was the setting for his finest work. As he wrote, landscape painters should not ‘flirt with a new neighbour each remaining summer.’ In 1893 he produced Nithsdale, a series of photogravures of his work.

 

From 1897, however, Paterson also had a studio in Edinburgh, spending part of the year there and the rest at Kilniess and in 1906 he finally moved to Edinburgh. However, he continued to holiday in Galloway, particularly along the Colvend coast. A number of works exhibited during the First World War were of Rockcliff, Rough Firth and other places along this coast. James Paterson became a member of the Royal Scottish Academy in 1910 the year of his wife’s death and thereafter he increasingly threw himself into public duties becoming President of the Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Watercolour in 1922 and Librarian, then Secretary of the Royal Scottish Academy. James Paterson died in Edinburgh in 1932.

Craigdarroch Water

Craigdarroch Water

Pool in Craigdarroch Glen

Pool in Craigdarroch Glen

Craigenputtock

Craigenputtock

Moniaive

Moniaive