Elected ARSA: 15 March 1939
Elected RSA: 13 February 1957
John Murray Thomson RSA was born on the 17th of December 1885 in Ayr. He was educated at Morrison’s Academy and went to Edinburgh to study art. He later worked in Paris at the Academie Julian. In the School of Painting of the Royal Scottish Academy he was awarded the Carnegie Travelling Scholarship, prizes for best painting and drawing from Life and for the best picture by a student in the RSA Exhibition.
After years of study, he returned to his first loves as subjects for his pictures - animals and birds in their natural settings. For eleven years he taught Animal Drawing and Painting at Edinburgh College of Art until these classes were discontinued in 1944. He was an ex-president of the Society of Scottish Artists.
He was elected ARSA in 1939 and RSA in 1957.
