John Alexander Day

I find that most people are quite surprised to find that I paint on location but after several years of painting on the streets, I would not have it any other way. Years ago I bought a very good second hand camera, for the purpose of recording information to back up my on location paintings. I was disappointed when I got my photos back from processing to find that it was not how I had seen each scene. Since then I have trusted my own eyes to interpret what was before me.

Artist's Profile

John’s paintings are really about light. This has been his reason for the vast majority of his work. This why it is important for John to paint directly from nature in order to capture the light. When painting on the streets this also means that people and traffic and shadows also move and change. It is surprising how much the light can evolve throughout the day, which is why he usually takes several canvases and boards along so that he can be ready to go on to another canvas as soon as the change in light occurs.

"Do you paint from photographs?" is a question often asked by people at John Day’s exhibitions, including the people that view and purchase paintings at Rothwell Gallery. John’s answer to the question would have be that he has far too much fun painting from life to bother with a camera!