James McNaught RSW RGI (b.1948) paints buildings and street scenes, mysterious figures and other narrative elements in fictional combinations.
James McNaught was born in Glasgow, the only son of parents who worked as carpet designers at Templeton's Carpet Factory on Glasgow Green. He studied Fine Art at Glasgow School of Art and at Hospitalfield Art College between 1966 and 1970. He won the Royal Scottish Academy painting award in 1970. From 1973 to 2007 he taught full time at a boys school in Glasgow where fellow prize winner and Royal Glasgow Institute of Fine Arts artist Simon Laurie was a pupil. In 2010 he won the Sir William Gillies Award at the Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Watercolour. He is now a full-time artist, and has had solo exhibitions in London, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Amsterdam and Munich. His paintings are highly sought after and held in significant private collections worldwide.