Foreword
This celebratory publication looks back over the long career of James Morrison and attempts to pull together the many strands of a life dedicated to art. A vital part of this dedication over seven decades was his relationship with The Scottish Gallery where mutual trust was a key component of the art business and a strong, honest working relationship helped to deliver his exhibitions to a wide and appreciative audience. A poem comes alive in the reading, music in the performance and a painting needs to be seen. Morrison really only wanted to paint but recognised he also needed to show. Jim was a nervous father to his painted progeny, often too close in the process to feel able to judge a new work and in the lead-up to an exhibition a studio visit was looked forward to with a kind of dread. The visit was ostensibly to select new work but was also a huge privilege for The Gallery representative, mostly myself over the last thirty years or so. I would drive up to Craigview House just south of Montrose and join Jim in his studio across a courtyard from the house. Coffee would be brewing with ten or fifteen oil paintings on board pinned to the wall. Each would be considered and discussed, the artist’s insights on each invaluable to The Gallery and comments in return, invariably positive, apparently welcome to the painter. A simple lunch in the conservatory would be followed
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