Born in Whitby, Ontario, Canada and living many places including the District of Columbia, Texas, Mississippi, Georgia and Massachusetts, James Moser was primarily an illustrator but also was a landscape painter in oil and watercolor. He completed a series of watercolor paintings for the Great Southern Railroad, and in Washington DC was awarded the first Corcoran Prize by the Washington Watercolor Club. He taught watercolor classes at the Corcoran Gallery of Art and Columbian University, which became George Washington University.

In the District of Columbia, he was an illustrator and art critic for the Washington Times, Post and Herald, did book illustrations including for Uncle Remus by J.C. H...