Opus Art Supplies

09/29/2026

Eight new easels. One for every way you create. 🎨

Whether you paint at the kitchen table or need room to go big, the new Opus Essential range has you covered. It runs from a folding tabletop easel you can set up anywhere to a double mast giant that rises past eleven feet. We've also added the Nelson cart, so your supplies can roll right along beside you.

They're built for the studio and priced so the right easel is within reach.

A few tips for setting up your space:

✔️ Raise it to eye level. Put your work where your gaze naturally falls, whether you're standing or sitting, so there's no hunching or craning.
✔️ Match the angle to the medium. Go upright for oils, tilt it gently for drawing and lay it flat for pours and washes. You can adjust as the piece evolves.
✔️ Keep everything in reach. Put your palette, brushes and water at arm's length, on wheels if you can, so stepping back is easy.

Shop the new easels: https://opusartsupplies.com/collections/opus-easels

09/14/2026

What makes a dream studio?

For BC artist Steve Chmilar, it isn't simply a question of square footage, perfect natural light or having every tool within reach. It's about creating a space that understands the way you work, and letting that space evolve alongside you.

Steve's practice moves through drawing, sculpture, photography, digital image making and oil painting, with each stage informing the next. His studio reflects years of trial and error: considered but flexible, filled with the materials he trusts and the systems he's built by figuring out what he actually needs.

As Studio Season arrives, we visited Steve to talk about building a workspace around your practice, why good lighting matters, the tools he keeps close, and how a studio becomes a dream studio not through perfection, but through use.

Read the full article here: https://opusartsupplies.com/blogs/resource-library/steve-chmilar-inside-a-professional-artist-studio-practice

09/08/2026

An entire art supply fair, at Granville Island, for one day only. 🎨🎪

On September 16 the store fills up with booths and hands on stations from the brands behind your favourite materials. Swatch the paints. Test the papers. Try the pens you've been circling for months. Ask the questions that never get answered on packaging, and hear them answered by the people who actually made the stuff.

Free to attend, no purchase required, no pressure at all. Wander in, try everything, stay as long as you like:

Canada's destination for professional fine art materials, giclée printing, picture frames, art learning resources, and more! Shop online or visit one of our 7 retail locations. Join our community and get access to education, art events, creative inspiration, and more!

09/03/2026

Summer scatters a practice. The light changes, the schedule tightens, and the table you used to work at is covered in something else.

Getting back to it doesn't have to mean a big ambitious return. Our new article walks through a gentler way in: short sessions, a setup you can leave out instead of packing away each time, and materials that don't ask much of you on the first day.

https://opusartsupplies.com/blogs/resource-library/how-to-restart-your-art-practice-a-gentle-fall-reset

08/26/2026

Port Coquitlam just got a little more creative. 🎨

We’re still putting the finishing touches on our new store, but the shelves are filling up and the colour is already here.

Paint, brushes, paper, canvas and plenty of creative possibilities are finding their new home — and we can’t wait for you to see it all come together.

📍 –2748 Lougheed Hwy, Port Coquitlam

Come take an early peek inside

08/24/2026

spend the twenty dollars. What comes back is hours you actually enjoyed, and there’s no price on that.

a few paints, a brush, whatever paper is nearby. That’s the whole beginning. Everything after that is just seeing what happens.

08/21/2026

Professional Quality, Made More Accessible: The Growing Opus Essential Range

Meet the newest addition to Opus Essential: artist-quality canvases designed to give oil and acrylic painters a dependable surface at an accessible price. Good materials matter. They affect how paint moves, how colour behaves, how a surface responds—and ultimately, how freely an artist can work. But choosing quality materials shouldn’t mean having to reserve them only for special projects.

That idea is at the heart of Opus Essential: a broad range of professional-quality art materials created to offer the performance artists need at a price that makes them practical to use every day.

Discover the Opus Essential range offering pro-quality art materials at accessible prices, including new artist-quality canvases for oil and acrylic painters.

08/21/2026

Every painting starts the same way. A blank surface, an idea you're not quite sure about yet, and the quiet hope that the materials will hold up their end.

Most of us have a good canvas tucked somewhere, waiting for a painting worthy of it. That was the thing we kept coming back to while developing this one. We wanted a canvas good enough for the work you're proud of, and affordable enough that you'd actually reach for it on an ordinary Tuesday.

The new Opus Essential Artists' Canvas is triple primed with a deep profile, so it takes paint evenly and hangs well without a frame. More on how the Essential range came together: opusartsupplies.com/blogs/resource-library/professional-quality-made-more-accessible-the-growing-opus-essential-range

08/18/2026

What does it actually take to loosen up in the studio? Justin Ogilvie, artist and Canvas Method co founder, has a few honest answers: youtu.be/SxPXAi5kRLo

Art Supplies That Actually Make a Difference (Beginner Artist Tips)...

08/17/2026

Walking into an art class for the first time can be intimidating. Maybe you haven't held a brush since school, or you're just not convinced a class is somewhere you belong.

In our latest article, Vancouver artist and Canvas Method co-founder Justin Ogilvie reflects on teaching himself to paint, why technique should lead to freedom, and why getting a little lost might be the most useful part of the process.

opusartsupplies.com/blogs/resource-library/justin-ogilvie-learning-to-get-lost-at-canvas-method

Discover Justin Ogilvie’s approach to art, learning and experimentation, and how Canvas Method helps artists build skills, confidence and creative freedom.