James Wright was born in 1935 in Peterborough, England. During his school years, he was particularly interested in art, but was not encouraged to pursue a career in this field, and so on leaving school became a policeman.

In 1963 James started to paint in oils purely and simply for pleasure and by 1965, soon after his marriage, his painting career had taken a firm hold. He specialized in painting boats depicted in harbour scenes from the Cornish and Kent coasts that created particular interest with two leading publishing companies who undertook to print four of his canvasses portraying these subjects.

For 15 years James was a teacher of Woodwork and Technical Drawing at the Gleed Boy’s School, Spalding, having to combine...