James’s young life was imbued with art, design, craft and an acknowledgement of the values inherent in both intellectual pursuits and artistic considerations. His father’s family were builders and town planners and, in his spare time, his father painted watercolours. James’s mother was a historian, specialising in the history of early South Australia’s settlement, and her father (James’s maternal grandfather) worked in the unique and dying art of decorative glazing. James says that as a young man he doubted his own patience to undertake the training required to pursue an artistic career. He decided instead to pursue a career in hotel management.
He was employed at Government House, North Terrace, where examples of the finer
