After being graduated from Edinburgh College of Art in 1928, James Couper Wright received scholarships enabling him to study in London. He also was awarded a traveling scholarship to study at the Académie moderne in France and in Belgium, Germany, and Switzerland, where he furthered his knowledge of the watercolor medium, learned the art of stained glass, and was introduced to the avant-garde.

In 1930 Wright moved to Santa Barbara, California, where he taught private classes in design and painting. During the summer of 1933 he studied with Alexander Archipenko (1887-1964) at Mills College in Oakland. He moved to Hollywood in 1937 to paint murals for private homes and remained in the Los Angeles area for the rest of his life, except from 1939 to 1941, when he taught at the University of Georgia and traveled throughout the South and New England. He taught at numerous schools in Southern California, among them the Coronado School of Fine Arts, Los Angeles County Art Institute (Otis Art Institute), and Occidental College, Los Angeles. He was also elected vice-president of the California Water Color Society.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Private collection, James Couper Wright Papers (on microfilm, Archiv. Am. Art) § Who’s Who in American Art, 1941, 1947, s.v. "Wright, James Couper" § Janice Lovoos, "The Watercolors of James Couper Wright," American Artist 29 (October 1965): 52-57, 74-77 § Moure 1975, pp. 26, 75, with bibliography § Moure with Smith 1975, p. 281, with bibliography.