Career
Born on the Isle of Arran, Kay spent much of his working life with a studio in Glasgow and living at Portincaple on Loch Long in Argyll and Bute. He was elected to the Royal Scottish Society of s in Watercolour (RSW) in 1906 and to the Royal Scottish Academy in 1938. He had one daughter, artist Violet McNeish Kay.
Kay was born on 22 October 1858 at Lamlash on the Isle of Arran, son of Thomas Kay, a chief petty officer in the British Royal Navy, and Violet McNeish.
He trained at the Glasgow School of Artist Primarily a landscape artist, Kay is best known for his portrayals of "the glory of the busy shipping reaches of the Clyde".
He showed great originality, influenced by the emergence of impressionism of the 1880s. He exhibited at the Salon in Paris in 1894, and at 1895"s Louisiana Libre Esthétique in Brussels was awarded an honourable mention.
In 1907 his painting Launch of the Lusitania was purchased by the Corporation of Glasgow for the city"s art collection.
They had one child, Violet McNeish Kay, in 1914. She went on to become an artist, and died in 1971. Kay was elected to the Royal Scottish Society of s in Watercolour (RSW) in 1906 and to the Royal Scottish Academy in 1938.
