Today Nairn is best known for his series of landscapes painted at Corrie on Arran. He contributed to a series of decorative mural paintings made by several of the Glasgow Boys, at the instigation of Francis Newbery. For the 1888 Glasgow International Exhibition. In 1889 he left Glasgow for New Zealand in an attempt to stave off illness that lead to his early death in 1904.

James Nairn, 1859-1904

Nairn was born at Lenzie, near Glasgow, and while training as an architect he attended art classes at Glasgow School of Art and W.Y. Macgregor's Bath Street Studio. In 1882 he and his friend and fellow Glasgow Boy George Henry founded the Palette Club, an alternative exhibition venue for young painters. The following year Nairn was elected to the prestigious Glasgow Art Club.