James Cumming

James Cumming (1922–1991) was a Scottish painter and lecturer influential in The Edinburgh School in the postwar period. Biography Cumming was born in Dunfermline, Scotland, in 1922. His father was superintendent of the local swimming baths, where James swam 100 lengths every morning before school. His mother was a factory worker, James was the first of her three children. He was educated at Dunfermline High School, where he won prizes in several subjects. At the school he was remembered as a serious student who strove for the best results in everything he did. He showed early promise in music, excelling in piano and winning distinction at every grade. His artistic talents were nurtured at school by the teacher and artist George Watson. He displayed an early determination to become an artist, winning an Andrew Grant Scholarship to attend the Edinburgh College of Art between 1939 and 1947, but his studies were interrupted by the Second World War. He tried to sign up for pilot training early, lying about his age, and eventually, in 1941, joined the Royal Air Force, completed pilot training at Terrell, Texas, in 1944 and served in RAF Transport Command in India and Burma. Following his service he returned to live with his parents and his studies at Edinburgh College of Art completing his Diploma in 1948 and his postgraduate degree in 1949. He was awarded a Travelling Scholarship, which he used to live and work in the remote island community of Callanish on the Isle of Lewis, Scotland. By living frugally he lived a full two years in Callanish, partly by teaching art at the village school. In this period he made a series of abstracted figurative paintings based on the landscape and figures he there. He continued to paint from these memory for almost 18 years. These are known as the Hebridean paintings, and they later helped to establish Cumming as a painter of The Edinburgh School.