A Life Shaped by the Academy Born in Portadown, County Armagh, James Sleator grew up in a household dedicated to education, the son of two teachers. His path toward the canvas began in the Belfast School of Art, but it was his move to Dublin in 1910 that truly defined his early years. Having secured a scholarship to the Metropolitan School of Art, he found himself under the guidance of Sir William Orpen. This period of intense study an…