James Morrison

The Gallery Directors are very sorry to announce the death of James Morrison. James was a great painter and a huge part of The Scottish Gallery for more than sixty years, the last thirty under an exclusive arrangement. His kindness, generosity and loyalty made him a hugely rewarding friend, and it has been a privilege to represent one of Scotland’s most distinctive and brilliant painters. Our thoughts are with his children and wider family and in due course we shall look forward to making a full tribute to this remarkable man.

Born in Glasgow in 1932, Morrison studied at Glasgow School of Art from 1950-4. After a brief spell in Catterline in the early 1960s, Morrison settled in Montrose in 1965, joining the staff of Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art in Dundee the same year. He resigned from Duncan of Jordanstone in 1987 to paint full-time and since then his work has been exclusively available through The Scottish Gallery. Whole-heartedly a landscape painter, his main working areas are the lush, highly-managed farmland around his home in Angus and the rugged wildness of west coast Assynt. As well as Scotland, Morrison has had extended painting trips to Africa, France, and Canada, including three trips to the Arctic in the 1990s. A suite of his Arctic paintings were recently acquired and exhibited as part of a major exhibition, Among the Polar Ice at The McManus in Dundee (September 2019 - March 2020).

James Morrison has exhibited with The Gallery since the fifties. His most recent exhibition, From Angus to the Arctic (January 2020), was his twenty-fifth solo show with The Scottish Gallery.

Please click to view or purchase the exhibition catalogues for 'Decades', 'The North Wind' and 'From Angus to the Arctic'. If you would like to receive updates regarding James Morrison please click here.