A prominent oil and watercolour painter of Canadian landscapes, vice-president of the Ontario Society of Artists (1874–80), and the founding president of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts (1880–90). He travelled extensively in Canada, reaching as far as the west coast. For the serial publication Picturesque Canada (1882–84) he supervised the commissioning of illustrations, himself producing the vast majority of images upon which the engraved illustrations were based.

A commercial artist, educator, and painter, Ogilvie was the first official Canadian war artist in the Second World War, noted for creating images of war while himself under fire. He was a member of the Canadian Group of Painters and the Canadian Society of Painters in Water Colour.