Joel Mara spent his childhood years on the beaches of Vancouver Island. Here he developed an appreciation for nature that grew into an artistic pursuit. His main inspiration was the wild beauty of the West Coast.

“As a child, all of my siblings were encouraged to draw, and later, to paint” says Joel. “My mom would put out paper and crayons and sit us down and we would draw people in simple landscapes or in spaceships or houses.”

Joel also traveled extensively in South and Central America at a young age with his parents as they did social work. As he grew older, it seemed a natural progression to express his feelings for nature on canvas with his preferred medium of oil paints.

From 2000 to 2003 he received training at Capilano College in the Illustration & Graphic Design Program. After this training every place he looked was a painting. The brush strokes Joel paints merely suggest a picture. It is up to the viewer to put this all together and form the image. The painting is not complete until the viewer has seen it.

Some of the first places he chose for painting were Crescent Beach and White Rock. Later, Joel would make day trips to local mountains and bays either taking pictures to paint in his studio, or paint plein-air along the sea or in the mountains surrounding Vancouver.

Joel’s goal is to capture the magic that he feels while out in nature. He currently paints in his studio in Vancouver.