James Busby has a personal conviction that allows him to create and produce his art, an art that comes from his encounters with nature and the world around him. He is a Texan by birth, ancestry, and temperament, but his training and experience combine to give him a view of the world that is truly diverse. Born in Jacksonville, Texas, James Busby spent most of his childhood in the woodlands of East Texas and the wide expanse of the Texas plains country. From his earliest recollections came sights, sounds, smells, and emotions that are locked in his memory and provide the inspiration for art that is focused on nature and the landscape. James Busby's artistic inheritance includes a wide range of likely and unlikely influences. It is obvious that French Impressionism and some of its equivalents in the twentieth century emanate from James Busby’s art. His connection to other definitive periods of art and artists may not be noticeable at first appearances, but regardless, they are there: J.M.W. Turner, Gustave Klimt, and Paul Jenkins to mention a few. In James Busby’s view, however, he is an independent artist. “I feel that my work and life allows me the freedom to admire and reflect on the art of other painters whose allegiances are quite different from my own. There is,” he says, “something about nature that enthralls and captivates me. In The Tree by John Fowles, he writes ‘art and nature are siblings, branches of the one tree.’ I try to approach nature and my art with the spirit of Fowles’ notion of the kinship of art and nature, with wide eyes and open heart.”
James Busby earned a Bachelor of Science Degree in Art from Sam Houston State University and a Master’s of Art in painting and printmaking from Highlands University in Las Vegas, New Mexico. In addition to creating his own art, he has been a professor since 1970 and is currently Art Department Chairman at Houston Baptist University in Houston, Texas, sharing his philosophies, experiences, and talents with his students.
James Busby 
