Mabel Killam Day

Mabel Killam was born in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, on July 7, 1884.^[2] Between 1900 and 1904, she studied art under John Hammond at the Mount Allison Ladies' College, presumably developing the ability to paint atmospheric land and seascapes as well as conventional still life arrangements.^[3] In 1905, Killam moved to New York City where she studied with Robert Henri at the New York School of Art and later at the Henri School of Art on Broadway, where she was a contemporary of Edward Hopper and George Bellows. Henri said of her, "Anyone who can make such a fresh, frank, (and) big transcriptions from nature . . . . . . can be a great artist and a true one."^[4] In New York City she began painting portraits of her friends and colleagues as well as scenes of urban life in New York.^[3] Killam moved back to Nova Scotia around 1907 and painted modern seascapes.^[3] She married Frank Parker Day (1881–1950), an English professor at the University of New Brunswick in 1910. They lived in Fredericton, New Brunswick, for two years before moving to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1912. Frank was the Head of the English Department and Director of Academic Studies at the Carnegie Institute of Technology, and Mabel immediately became active in the local art community.^[3]

During WWI, Mabel Killam Day lived in London while her husband served in the Canadian Forces. In 1918, after the war, they returned to Yarmouth, where their son Donald was born. In 1926, the Days moved to Philadelphia, and in 1928 they moved to Schenectady, New York. They moved back to Yarmouth, Nova Scotia in 1933, where Mabel continued to paint and exhibit well into her seventies.^[3]