James Kay RSA RSW (Scottish 1858 - 1942)
 
Upstream, River Clyde
 
Watercolour and Bodycolour on Buff Paper
 
Signed Lower Right
 
23 x 33cm
 
James Kay was born on the Isle of Arran. He trained at Glasgow School of Art and kept a studio in Glasgow for much of his life, becoming known for impressionistic landscapes and paintings of the busy shipping lanes of the Clyde. He had much success during his lifetime, exhibiting widely in the UK and Europe and being heavily influenced by the emergence of impressionism in the 1880s. Kay exhibited his paintings several times at the Paris Salon and won awards in France and Belgium as well as entering public collections in Scotland. He was elected to the Royal Scottish Society of Painters and Watercolours in 1906 and the Royal Scottish Academy in 1938. Kay worked primarily with pastel and watercolour at the start of his career, moving on to oils and watercolour latterly.