Artist, cartographer and teacher, working in a wide variety of media, born James Edward Owens in Newcastle upon Tyne, Northumberland, where he attended the local art school in the late 1930s. From 1945–58 Owens taught part-time at Manchester School of Art, also painting as a freelance. With his first wife Margo Ingham he was joint owner of the Mid-Day Studios, an important exhibition and gathering place for more advanced artists in Manchester. From 1959–75 Owens was staff cartographer for the Manchester Guardian. Sickert, Daumier and Rembrandt were influences on Owens, whose own work encompassed the female nude, figures in landscape, industrial scenes, single figures, the poor and deprived materially and emotionally. Owens showed at Manchester’s City Art Gallery and elsewhere in the north, and Salford and other regional galleries hold examples.