“It is important to express oneself…provided the feelings are real and are taken from your own experience.”
- Berthe Morisot
“It is important to express oneself…provided the feelings are real and are taken from your own experience.”
- Berthe Morisot
The Opus Cypress Frame is a metal frame created to look like wood, to give you the best of both worlds; durable strength to protect your art or photography with a stylish appearance. The design is sleek, angular and... Read More
Over the next few months we’re exploring the creative cycle, from inspiration through to final execution. Successfully cultivating artistic endeavours is a process, and throughout January, we’re examining step one: planting those seeds of creativity by Re-Imagining and Experimentation. Danielle... Read More
Princeton Artist Brush Co. is one of the largest brush-makers in North America. Since their start in 1992, artist brushes have been the sole focus of Princeton. Other brush companies make paint, paper, canvas, pastels, and easels. Princeton makes one thing: the best quality, most fairly priced artist brushes available today. In this article we have compiled resources to give you a comprehensive guide to using Princeton Brushes.
Golden Artist Colors has created hundreds – if not thousands – of products since their initial startup in 1980. GOLDEN tend to think of their acrylic-based materials as tools. Like most garages, sometimes a few tools go missing. During the... Read More
Now, more than ever, artists are craving a clean slate and there’s no better time than the start of the year to reimagine and experiment fresh ways to express what’s within. Like staring out onto an open field, the creative... Read More
Part Eight • Opus Unique Colours Series When oil painters visit the Williamsburg factory, they always show them these colours. The response is unanimously positive, especially from those who use darker tones or blacks in their work. Williamsburg has... Read More
Moonglow Extra Fine Watercolor by DANIEL SMITH is an amazing three-pigment blend. Watch with anticipation as Anthraquinoid Red floats, Ultramarine Blue settles and Viridian grays result in soft violet colour. Selectively blot and lift as well as wash to expose... Read More
In the world of pigments there is history, consistency and refinement, and when fluorescent show up they make waves, they make themselves known. Fluorescent colours are valued for a brightness that standard pigments don’t possess. While, as their name... Read More
After WWII, after Paris had been liberated, Picasso returned to the city of light. As one might imagine, after fighting fascism in both Spain and France, Picasso and his friends were very much engaged in all forms of freedom... Read More
Emerald green is a bright blue-green named after the precious gemstone, which gets its distinctive color from trace amounts of chromium and vanadium. Also known as Schweinfurt green, Paris green and Veronese green, it has been a popular color throughout... Read More
Over the past month, our Holiday Makers Gallery has grown into a thriving, vibrant epicentre of creative entrepreneurship. Yes, we might all be missing the festive sights and sounds of large gatherings – they’re a familiar antidote to the shrinking... Read More
Rose madder is a distinctive rose-coloured pigment made from the roots of the common madder plant, Rubia tinctorum. It is a transparent pigment with granulating properties in watercolour. A natural organic lake pigment, it was first used as... Read More
Discover Ultramarine Blue! Ultramarine is a colour that has appealed to people’s imagination since the early Middle Ages. These days it is impossible to imagine the standard palette without this intense blue with its excellent lightfastness. However, up until... Read More
Discover Quinacridone Gold! This colour is not what it seems at first glance – it looks like a warm, rich brown straight out of the tube, but it is very transparent and lends a glorious glow to paintings. It also... Read More
Undeniably, 2020 has been a tough year. As the pandemic’s taken hold, our world has changed, causing pain and suffering across our creative community. We continue to confront ongoing uncertainties, and our hearts go out to everyone, already finding things... Read More
The Prominent, Top Performing Pastels with Roberta Combs Like many Opus customers, Federation of Canadian Artists Spilsbury Medal award winner and Gold Medal recipient from the International Associations of Pastel Societies, Roberta Combs, has been asking us to stock the... Read More
Oil Painting from Home Over the past several months, countless artists and educators have had their scheduled workshops and classes moved online to maintain distance and paint remotely. As fall approaches, this trend continues for many of us. The... Read More
Over the past month you’ve been sharing your artistic projects and the Creative Endeavours Gallery is teeming with inspirational work. As well as taking new ideas to the next level, many of you are successfully making a living or supplementing... Read More
At the start of September we published a piece about mixed media artist Stacey Dallyn and her Creative Endeavour, the youth arts therapy programme ART HUB. Over the past month, Stacey and her team have been working with Opus and... Read More
Manga-influenced, Italo-Canadian artist and Opus alumna, Camilla d’Errico has amassed a huge, loyal following whilst carving out a unique niche in her target market. A pop surrealist painter and comic book creator, she also contributes to the vinyl art toy... Read More
Studio 101 supports artistic experiences for Vancouver’s inner-city youth. Studio 101 is an Eastside Culture Crawl program dedicated to supporting diverse and engaging artistic experiences for Vancouver’s inner-city youth. Many Eastside schools are designated as inner-city and have limited exposure... Read More
Creative Endeavours and the Role of the Studio What is the art studio? Some might see it solely as the place an artist reflects, researches, stores and produces material, but the potential of the space doesn’t need to end... Read More
Trading up to a professional level can seem overwhelming. A few small changes to your palette selections can make a big impact and allows for a more manageable transition while offering cleaner mixes and greater tinting strength. Generally there are... Read More
Ansel Adams famously said, “The photograph is the score; the print is the performance.” I’d like to elaborate on that theme for those of you contemplating fine art printing and for experienced printers looking for new perspectives. I grew... Read More
Producing something fresh and unique through any form of art offers a sense of self-worth and purpose, so as summer turns to fall amidst the upheaval and change of 2020, we’re focussing on Creative Endeavours. No matter how you do... Read More
With Labour Day just around the corner it’s nearly time to close the doors on our Creative Summers Gallery, but not before we show off one final round of some of your spectacular work! It’s been brilliant to see so... Read More
Art classes, staycations, daily challenges, memories, gardens, family, escapism … despite the challenges of 2020, all different sorts of things are inspiring you this August! It’s really uplifting to see such an extraordinary array of fabulous, imaginative art pile into... Read More
Tokyo-born, BC-based artist, Taka Sudo emblazoned the cover of our first Create in June 2019. Inspired by human nature, his surroundings, and current affairs, Taka combines neon tones of spray paint with neutral colours of newsprint to amplify the... Read More
Our Oh Canada Virtual Art Tour has ended. What an epic, seven-week adventure! From Faces to Food, Landscapes to Landmarks, we travelled coast to coast, finishing back where we set off in Old Hazelton, at the heart of Gitxsan territory.... Read More
This week we’ve been served some sizzling, steaming and scrumptious submissions. What a delicious and diverse celebration of Canadian cultural identity! Dishing out colour, flavour and pizzaz, your snapshot of our national plate couldn’t be more varied. We’re on the... Read More