James Roman Andrus was born in St George, Utah in 1907. He was painter, printmaker, and educator.  He died in Provo, Utah in 1993.

Andrus studied Otis Art Institute with Eduard Vysekal and Roscoe Shrader from 1934 to 1939.  He received a bachelors degree from Brigham Young University in 1943 and a masters degree from BYU in 1943.  He studied at the Colorado Springs Fine Art Center in the summer of 1943.  In 1950 he studied at the Art Students League in New York.  He received his Ed.D.from the University of Colorado in 1958.

In 1940 Andrus joined the art department faculty at Brigham Young University as an instructor of painting.  He remained in that position until 1943.  He was an assistant professor of painting and printmaking from 1950 to 1953 followed his appointment as professor of art from 1958 to 1974.  He was named professor emeritus in 1974.  He founded the university’s printmaking department.

The overpowering interest in Andrus’s work is in the interplay of color and rhythm.  His work is characterized by expressionistic landscapes with undulating motion and fauvist color. Although he paints portraits, he is best known for landscapes such as Cadmium Crest (1964) and Peaks and Passes (1971).  Sunrise Peak(1972) is one of his lithographs

Andrus won Utah State Institute of Fine Arts Purchase Prize in 1945 and 1950.

His work was exhibited at Brigham Young University (1940–42) and at the Springville Museum of Art (1939–46).