Artist Feature: Tamara Phillips

Hello all!

Though it's hard to believe, summer is finally winding down. Before the sun begins to set to fall, we wanted to feature another artist who reminds us of summer. Tamara Phillips of Vancouver Island paints lustrous wildlife illustrations with hues of blues and aquas. Her love of nature and wildlife is evident in every slender stroke and meticulously drawn circle. Mixed with wood textures, her final pieces become entrancing - trailing from the shape of a jellyfish or an otter, soon you lose yourself in the myriad of mandala-like details that make up each hair, face, or feather.

Moonlit Owl, Tamara Phillips

" I am completely inspired by the natural world. Beauty is everywhere.

It is in the growth of the forest, the depth of the sea, and the curve of the bone.

It is skin, scales, bark, and tide pool ripples. It is texture, and it is raw.

I am a translator of life, and I am compelled to narrate it."

- Tamara Phillips, from her bio-page.

When looking at her pieces, one almost feels as if the subjects themselves are fluid, ever-moving and perhaps not entirely real. They move as if manifested out of water itself, floating, condensing, evaporating. It is this sense of permeability and (yet) impermanence that makes Phillip's work truly a blend of "myth, dream, intuition, and reality".

Orca, 7x10, Tamara Phillips

Sea Otter, 14x11

To view more of Tamara Phillips' work, visit her website. You can also check out her Etsy shop for prints and more.

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KeenArt Media is a family-owned printing company specializing in fine art prints and reproduction services, such as scanning, dry mounting, and dye sublimation (onto metal or wood!). Whether it's for the home or for the gallery, we have you covered.  Inquire today!

KeenArt Media Ltd. Toll Free: 1-88-533-6278
www.VancouverOnCanvas.com
Working Hours:
8:30 AM to 5:00PM Monday to Thursday
8:30 AM to 4:00PM Friday

Artist Spotlight: Leah Pipe

Art as true therapy...

Here at VancouverOnCanvas, we're huge fans of any art depicting the West Coast. The works of Leah Pipe are among our top favorites especially. With her delicate  strokes and fine lines, she
renders amazing wildlife portraits that are stunningly soft and clear.

Heart of the Headwaters, by Leah Pipe

Warrior Wolf, by Leah Pipe

The Echo Across the Lake, by Leah Pipe. 

A BC artist, Leah Pipe resides in the coastal mountain ranges of Northern BC, right in the heart of Gitxsan territory around the Skeena River. She is a professional artist, graphic designer, and Communications Designer for Skeena Watershed Conservation Coalition. Her love for the wilderness and wildlife of British Columbia is clearly evident in her micro-amazing details, which she encourages us to examine along with her. 

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Fine Art Printing Inspired? At VancouverOnCanvas we offer fine art printing and framing in a wide selection of paper styles and frames. We also scan originals so that you can enjoy the beauty of their colors on each individual paper texture for years to come. Printed with archival inks, their brilliance is built to remain. To evoke that beautiful subtle watercolor texture, we recommend the Hahnemuhle German Etching. Simply sensuous!

Would you like to be featured on our blog, or know an artist you'd like us to share? We'd love to get to know you and your thoughts! Leave your suggestions in the comments below!

KeenArt Media Ltd. 604-421-8000 (KeenART)
www.VancouverOnCanvas.com
8:30 AM to 5:00 PM Monday to Thursday
8:30 AM to 4:00 PM Friday

Parker Art Salon Recap + Artist Feature and Case Study!

Hello everyone!

Hope everyone is enjoying these little breaks of summer we keep getting. We can't wait for summer to finally stick around!

Our apologies for the delay in blogging - May was a pretty hectic month for us! But we should be returning to our regularly scheduled programming soon.

To catch up, how many of you went to the Parker Art Salon back in the beginning of May? I went, and loved it! So many fantastic pieces - walking around all three floors made me buzz with so much excitement.

I also went to grab a shot of this wonderful work! Earlier this year, artist Sarah Knoebber came in to inquire about our dry mounting services. For her light-inspired piece, she wanted to be able to mount her semi-transparent collage on acrylic in order to truly capture the dynamic of light in her pieces. After much consideration and thought, we mounted the piece onto plexi, and in order to have light shimmer through, we also built an additional clear plexi frame at the back. This way the piece ("Woman Listening") could be viewed both front and back, allowing the audience to interact with it as they wish!

We also assisted with the resining of her other piece below:

While the resin was able to capture and deepen the vibrancy of the colors in her collage ("Other Worlds"), it also sealed it completely, protecting it from being interactive in a tactile manner. The transparency and exposure of  "Woman Listening" invited viewers to draw in, explore, touch. Both stunning and gorgeous pieces, with their own personalities and flavor.

Thank you for using us, Sarah! We're delighted to have been part of your art-making process!

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Thinking of dry-mounting or resining? Visit us at VancouverOnCanvas.com!

VancouverOnCanvas is a local printing, framing, fine arts and reproduction company. We also supply artist materials such as custom canvases, primed and unprimed, as well as stretcher bars, wood panels, etc. Check out our supply section today!

KeenArt Media Ltd. 604-421-8000 (KeenART)

www.VancouverOnCanvas.com

8:30 AM to 5:00 PM Monday to Thursday

8:30 AM to 4:00 PM Friday 

Artist Spotlight: Peter Jurik

We're always wowed whenever we get to see artworks made by our clients, and pieces by Peter Jurik has always left us with deeply impressed.

Amy Winehouse, Peter Jurik

Born in Czechoslovakia, Peter moved over to Canada in 1968, and now resides in Vancouver. His sense of gripping realism and eye for detail is astounding, especially when it carries over a wide variety of subjects: automobiles, sailboats, wildlife, and portraiture.

The Stones, Peter Jurik

Our personal favorites are part of his Canadian wildlife collection, painted with watercolors. As watercolors are notoriously difficult to work with, it never ceases to amaze me how Jurik captures the depth of his subjects with such richness.

Couple, by Peter Jurik

You can buy some of Peter's work from his website here. We can't wait to see more from this incredible artist on his Canadiana subjects!

Victory, Peter Jurik

Would you like to be featured on our blog, or know an artist you'd like us to share? We'd love to get to know you and your thoughts! Leave your suggestions in the comments below!


KeenArt Media Ltd. 604-421-8000 (KeenART)
www.VancouverOnCanvas.com
8:30 AM to 5:00 PM Monday to Thursday
8:30 AM to 4:00 PM Friday

Fine Art Printing  At VancouverOnCanvas we offer fine art printing in a wide selection of paper styles. We also scan originals so that you can enjoy the beauty of their colors on each individual paper texture for years to come. Printed with archival inks, their brilliance is built to remain.

Artist Spotlight: CocoBee

Art as true therapy...

Here at VancouverOnCanvas, most of the staff are artistic enthusiasts. Some of us have animated, others painted, some sketched, etc. As such, we are always looking for inspiration that really resounds with us, and when we came across CocoBee's work, we knew we had to share.

Abstract Dance Watercolors by CocoBee.

Whether you do art as a hobby or as a profession, there is no doubt the experience is resonating, and extremely reflective, deep. It's no surprise that art often implemented as a means of therapy, and CocoBee's pieces, through her videos and music, truly captures the process of both artistic and self exploration.

A unique Youtube star, she combines her colorful abstract painting videos with soothing instrumentals, and a poetic narration of her thoughts and feelings as she delves through the work. The result is a deeply personal and wholly vibrant connection - from her, to the piece, to us.

Here, a snippet of her work(ing)...

Fine Art PrintingInspired? At VancouverOnCanvas we offer fine art printing and framing in a wide selection of paper styles and frames. We also scan originals so that you can enjoy the beauty of their colors on each individual paper texture for years to come. Printed with archival inks, their brilliance is built to remain. To evoke that beautiful subtle watercolor texture, we recommend the Hahnemuhle German Etching. Simply sensuous!

Would you like to be featured on our blog, or know an artist you'd like us to share? We'd love to get to know you and your thoughts! Leave your suggestions in the comments below!

KeenArt Media Ltd. 604-421-8000 (KeenART)
www.VancouverOnCanvas.com
8:30 AM to 5:00 PM Monday to Thursday
8:30 AM to 4:00 PM Friday

Spotlight: 3D Resining

A little patience goes a long way...

It's no surprise that resined art pieces garner all the love and attention that they get...their glossy coats glimmer as you pass, they're hardy and pristine like a knight in polished transparent armor, and their ability to saturate colors just them that extra WOW factor.

A canvas print coated with resin at our shop

But this effect comes at the cost of great time, delicacy and patience...due to the resin's thick liquid consistency and chemical make-up, it requires some time to fully dry (anywhere from an afternoon to several days, depending on the size of the image!), and the right environment to let it properly cure.

Which makes what Riusuke Fukahori does with his art pieces especially mindblowing.

 

 

At first glance these pieces look like real fishes that have been captured by resin. Upon further inspection, it's logical to assume that perhaps these are not real fish, but beautifully carved 3D fish that have had resin poured on top. ....Nope!

Using painstaking patience and incredible detail, Riusuke Fukahori paints each three-dimensional goldfish upon a slice of resin. Like microscopic slides, he paints what they would look like if sliced at that level, pours another layer of resin on top (and waits for it to cure!) before continuing with another layer of paint.

Watch his incredible process video here:

Looking to get something resined? Although we offer what Riusuke Fukahori does,  at VancouverOnCanvas we do offer resin as an add-on when for your canvas prints and mounted photo prints. We can add resin in 3 different sheets of coating:

• 1 coating (1/16" thick)
• 2 coatings (1/8" thick)
• 3 coatings (1/4" thick)

You can check out our price calculator for resin here!

Looking to try the technique above? (Kudos to you!) We also sell resin in jugs, which you can pick up at our in-store location.

EX-74 UV Resistant Epoxy Polymer
EX-74 is an extremely clear, tough, high gloss surface coating formulated to produce a deep glass like appearance in a single layer on a sealed surface.

If you have any other ideas for using resin with your projects, let us know! We'd love to hear what you're up to. You can always reach us for at orders@keenartmedia.com to discuss your ideas, or head over to  to if you're all set to go. Happy resin-ing!


KeenArt Media Ltd. 604-421-8000 (KeenART)
www.VancouverOnCanvas.com
8:30 AM to 5:00 PM Monday to Thursday
8:30 AM to 4:00 PM Friday