Opening Ceremony Sunset

About the Work

Opening Ceremony Sunset throws open the festival summer in a blaze of West Coast colour. The artist's signature 'Vancouver 2026' cursive sweeps across a sky of molten orange and deep blue, a totem silhouette stands guard at the left, and far below a stadium bowl brims with spectators around a glowing stage. In the foreground a supporter in a 'CANADA' shirt joins a crowd that recedes toward the harbour and the distant downtown towers.

Pius pitches the whole canvas at the emotional key of a beginning — expansive, golden, almost overwhelming. Thick knife-laid clouds and flecks of light scattered over the crowd give the surface a celebratory shimmer. It is the curtain-raiser of the series, the moment the city steps onto the world stage.

Process & Technique

Pius reserves the heaviest sky impasto in the collection for this canvas, troweling ribbons of orange and gold cloud so thickly they cast their own shadows. The crowd below is suggested with a confetti of small bright dabs over a dark base, and the looping title is brushed directly into the wet sky so it reads as part of the atmosphere rather than a label on top of it.