Jim has over twenty-five years experience working as a professional artist. He has produced many landscape and seascape paintings plus a wealth of portraiture and caricatures . Included on this website are portraits of famous Hollywood Legends and ordinary every day people. Also on the portrait page are intimate and detailed studies of animals and birds.There is also a page on this website dedicated to showing Jims caricature work. Amongst these are some famous faces, including a few from Rangers Football Team from about 1993.Caricatures are mostly private commissions by people who want to mark a special occasion or celebration, such as Birthdays, Weddings, Retirement etc. A caricature can be tailored to suit almost any occasion.

Jim has always been interested in drawing and painting and from a very early age he would spend hours striving to improve in his chosen medium, which in those early years was mostly pencil and coloured pencils. In 1979 he was employed as an illustrator by a local newspaper and magazine publishers in Dundee. It was around this time that he concentrated more on portraiture and caricature, also a lot of illustration and cartoon work.

Around 1990 Jim decided he needed more satisfaction from his work. Having always enjoyed and appreciated the beauty and often ruggedness of the Scottish landscape Jim drew inspiration from this and visits to dramatic locations such as the Isle of Skye and the brooding grandeur of Glencoe fuelled his ambition to branch out into painting the Scottish landscape . Starting with watercolour (probably the most difficult medium to master) he spent the next few years familiarising himself with the medium and developing a variety of techniques and a working style.

Before long he realised he found great pleasure and enthusiasm in capturing the atmosphere, mood, drama and ruggedness of the Scottish Landscape in his paintings with the use of colour. On occassions his paintings have been described as having a fantasy aspect to them.
 

In the mid 90’s Jim joined several local art societies and had lots of success in their exhibitions, gaining him confidence and drive.
After a few years of working mainly in watercolour, Jim has more recently broadened his media to include oil, pastel and particularly acrylic, as being able to use the texture of the paint can often capture that elusive mood.