Scottie Wilson was born in 1888 in London's East End. While still young, his family relocated to Glasgow, Scotland, and at the age of eighteen, Wilson joined the Scottish Rifles, serving in South Africa and India. A completely self-taught artist, it is unclear exactly when he began to draw, but believed to have been sometime in the mid-1930s.

He had settled in Toronto, Canada and one day, began to draw on a cardboard tabletop, covering it with designs and images, and from this beginning his work did not cease. His inventive art was recognized by dealer Douglas Duncan who organized exhibitions for him, but this was ended by Wilson's abrupt return to England in June, 1945. In October of that year, he was included in the "Surr...