James Garden Laing was born in Aberdeen, Scotland on 20 January 1851 [or 15 October 1852 - sources differ] and was articled to a local architect [name not known] from c.1868 to 1873. He then worked for an architect in Cardiff [name not known] for two years before returning to Scotland. From 1875 to c.1878 he was employed as an assistant in the office of Campbell, Douglas & Sellars in Glasgow. He also attended Glasgow School of Art.
By the late 1870s Laing appears to have abandoned the architectural profession and instead pursued a career as a painter. He began to exhibit in 1879 and subsequently showed at Dowdeswells, Fine Art Society, Grosvenor Gallery, Royal Academy of Arts, Royal Society of British Artists, and Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours in London; Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts; Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool; Manchester City Art Gallery; and at the Royal Scottish Academy and the Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Watercolours in Edinburgh. He was elected a member of the Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Watercolours in 1885.
Laing travelled in Europe and Egypt and in 1899 married the painter Annie Rose Low (1869-1946). He died in Glasgow [or Aberdeen - sources differ] on 22 August 1915
McEwan, Peter J.M. Dictionary of Scottish art & architecture. Woodbridge, Suffolk, England: Antique Collectors’ Club Ltd., 1994