John Adam Plimmer Houston was born in Edinburgh and studied at the Trustees Academy as well as The Royal Academy Schools and in Paris & Germany. He settled in London in 1858 .

He exhibited at the Royal Scottish Academy from 1833 and was ekected A.R.S.A. in 1842 and R.S.A. in 1845. He was elected A.N.W.S. in 1874 and a full member of the New Watercolour Society in 1879. As well as landcsape he painted genre and civil war subjects.

Examples of his work can be found in the:

Ashmolean Museum in Oxford

Maidstone Museum

National Gallery of Scotland.