January is typically a rainy, snowy, and a grey month in Vancouver. What better way to counter that than an exhibition full of colour, nature, and life? 

We bring you a solo exhibition with Vancouver based, self-taught artist, Ray Ophoff. 

Ray Ophoff's artwork is lush and colourful as nature is but it does not scream "self-taught" in anyway. Ray is an oil painter that generally creates florals and landscapes on birch panels with an amazing eye for colour, form, and perspective. 

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From the artist:

"When I started painting again I was blessed by having no expectations of a career in art.

As a child, I was lucky enough to be raised in the semi-wilderness that was suburban North Surrey during a time when kids were expected to stay outside until dinner at 5 o’clock—sharp!

I remember being shocked to discover that not all homes were filled with books and artworks.

My dad was a gifted painter and photographer his entire adult life and was an adventurous colourist. When my mother took up painting, she emerged as a natural draftsman with a great eye for composition.

The seeming chaos in nature belies an order and structure that I see over and over again. There are no random branches on trees.

I’m either cramming the entire horizon onto a 9” x 12” panel or painting a crocus bigger than your head. It’s all in an effort to make some sense of a small corner of the world.

Frankly, I feel everyone needs a couple of metres of swiss chard on their walls."