Product Q&A

Frame your images between black and white. Get the benefits of both simplicity and style with grey, in this latest addition to the BOD line of frame moldings found exclusively at Opus....Read more

What comes to mind when you think of Mixed Media? As personal definitions and methods vary, we challenged three of our staff to make their own interpretations. And like a high-pressure reality show, they had to work with a common element: a photograph of a shark. (Why a shark? Because sharks are awesome. That’s all.)...Read more

Like a blank canvas or sheet of paper, a new year holds the promise of something new and exciting. Refresh your passion for art by trying a new medium. Rethink your approach by experimenting with new techniques. Many traditional art materials have been around for hundreds of years, and evolving technology offers new ways to use them. Rethink some of the materials you use by applying them in new ways. Here are three techniques that can refresh your practice....Read more

This past fall, Opus teamed up with the Continuing Studies Department at Emily Carr University of Art + Design to produce a series of videos with their instructors, including artist Vjeko Sager. Vjeko shared his love of charcoal (he confesses to being a “charcoal-holic”) and demonstrated some of his techniques, using charcoal to create large scale, abstract works that made me look at this medium in a whole new way....Read more

With the expansion of our Fine Art Digital Print Service to all six of our stores, the place of reproductions in the marketing of one’s work has come up. As artists, this is worth examining and discussing as it directly relates to our art practices and the selling of art....Read more

Lay a solid groundwork for your painting with a good foundation, an important step to help your chosen medium and substrate adhere to one another and ensure the longevity of your work. Selecting the right kind and combination of foundation layers begins with the kind of support you wish to paint on and your chosen painting media....Read more

Cotton is one of the world’s most diversely used fibres. All manner of textile products, from clothing and home furnishings to medical supplies and even coffee filters, contain cotton as their dominant material. In the art world, cotton is found primarily in fine art papers and canvas.

Until late last year, the cotton supply and global demand had been roughly the same for approximately 8 years, resulting in stable prices. However, during the 2010/11 harvest, bad weather affected crops around the world. Worst hit were the major producers of cotton – China suffered drought conditions and south Asia experienced devastating floods. The result was severely reduced crops, a dramatic reduction in the global cotton supply, and the price of cotton nearly quadrupling....Read more

Many artists are drawn to the outdoors to capture nature’s beauty and framing the finished piece with the right moulding honours the tradition of plein air painting and shows off the work to its best advantage.

The process of creating original artwork and photographs is a series of choices. Subject matter, media, and your chosen surface all influence the resulting piece. That process continues through to how you present and display your work. Custom do-it-yourself framing and matting is the final step that allows you to not only impact the longevity of a piece but also to influence the look and feel of the completed work. When framing at Opus, we encourage you to bring your artwork in to find the presentation solution that best suits your needs....Read more

Every artist has to start somewhere, but not everyone has the circumstances or desire to attend art school, and even small workshops may be intimidating to the beginner. Opus has a great selection of instructional books, but now there is an additional option for anyone who has ever claimed, “I’m not an artist!”...Read more