James Downie Robertson RSA was born in Cowdenbeath in 1931. His family moved to Glasgow where he attended Hillhead High School and then Glasgow School of Art under David Donaldson RSA and Joan Eardley RSA. After graduating in 1953, he travelled in Spain for a while before taking up a teaching job at Keith Grammar school. In 1959 he was appointed a part-time lecturer at Glasgow School of Art, becoming full-time in 1967.
Robertson was elected to the Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Watercolour (RSW) in 1962 and the Royal Glasgow Institute (RGI) in 1980. He became an Associate Member of the Royal Scottish Academy in 1974 and an Academician in 1989. In 2002 he received an honorary degree from Glasgow University and was awarded the MBE in 2009.
Robertson loved to paint the changing light and colour on the sea and the West Renfrewshire countryside but was also attracted to industrial Clydeside. His paintings evoked more of a general mood or response to landscape rather than a particular view.