James Aitken

James Aitken

James Aitken’s passion for the outdoors is obvious in his work, where he spends much of his time as a landscape painter. His paintings focus on the remote, where his plein air journeys have taken him across hundreds of kilometres of Ontario’s most rugged and beautiful places. His landscapes include scenes from Georgian Bay and Lake Superior as well as his adventures in James Bay — immersing himself in the Boreal forest of black spruce, birch and balsam.

Living and working near Collingwood, James finds his inspiration through isolation. He attended the Academy of Art Canada in Toronto, where he studied landscape and oil painting techniques.

Currently, James is the Chair of the Onakawana Education Fund, enabling Ontario youth to visit Camp Onakawana on the Abitibi River to learn traditional First Nations land-based knowledge. His newly-opened Coventry Art Studio & Gallery, a converted Hudson’s Bay Company trading post located in Nottawa, is dedicated to promoting Canadian landscape art.