Born in Holdenville, Oklahoma, and living in several states while growing up, Jim Daly experienced many of the scenes that appear in his paintings. After his discharge from the Army in 1959 and with a growing family to support, he worked in the defense industry. He kept his dream alive of becoming a professional artist by coming home and painting long into the night. Daly enrolled in the Art Center College of Design and soon began selling his pieces. He was finally able to give up his "day job" and concentrate full time on his artistic career.

Throughout Daly's career, emotion has been the key to his success. Jim says, "Emotion is probably the key to everything I do. An emotionally conceived painting is going to project itself to the viewer more than a piece where your only interest is in shapes, and forms, and brush strokes. They all have their place; they are all important in making meaningful art, but I don't see anything wrong with telling a story. I try to keep the story understated. I don't want to overstate and give the viewer too much. I want to pull back a bit and leave something to the viewers' imagination so they can participate in the painting and discover things in it."

Jim has shared his talent with other artists by teaching at the Scottsdale Artist's School and several other workshops around the country. His paintings of American genre are represented in many private and corporate collections and have received numerous awards. In 1992, U.S. Art magazine named him a "Hall of Fame" inductee and listed his limited edition print "Favorite Gift" as one of the top 20 sellers of that year. Daly's work was published in limited edition prints by Mill Pond Press for over 20 years. He recently left Mill Pond and is currently published by The Greenwich Workshop. A number of his images have been licensed to manufactures and have been featured in books, calendars, cards and many other products.