John Alexander Day (Contemporary) Evening Light, Ottawa River

This plein-air oil study by John Alexander Day brings out the quiet, glowing atmosphere of the Ottawa riverfront. Painted directly on location, the piece zeroes in on the high-contrast golden hour light shimmering across the water. Day shifts from the bright, warm yellows of the sunset sky down into the deep, heavy shadows of the trees along the bank.

The painting highlights several local landmarks on the far shore. You can clearly spot the long, modern building lines of the National Research Council (NRC) labs on Sussex Drive, complete with a tiny Canadian flag sitting just to the left. Over on the right, the geometric frame of the Macdonald-Cartier Bridge cuts across the water, all set against the rolling Gatineau hills on the horizon.

Day uses thick, energetic brushwork to give the board a great textured feel. It is housed in a premium, rustic dark-wood gallery frame with a traditional wide cream linen liner, arriving completely ready to hang. Signed by the artist in the lower-right corner, it is a perfect pick for anyone who loves regional Ontario and Quebec landscape art.

John Alexander Day is an elected member of both the Society of Canadian Artists and the Ontario Society of Artists. Born in Scotland, he immigrated to Ottawa in 1989, spending nearly thirty years painting the distinct seasons of Eastern Canada before relocating his studio practice to Victoria, British Columbia, in 2016.

Plein-air painting is the core of Day’s artistic practice. Traveling across North America and Europe, he works directly in the field to observe changing weather and light firsthand, a method that allows him to paint freely without relying on rigid studio formulas.

Alongside his active studio work, Day spent years teaching landscape painting at the Ottawa School of Art’s Orleans campus. Today, his expressive, light-filled landscape oils are widely collected by art lovers across Canada and abroad.