A U.S. artist has shared a stunning painting of Vancouver that looks so realistic it’s had people doing a double-take.
The acrylic painting of the Lions Gate Bridge and Vancouver’s cityscape at sunrise was shared on Reddit a few days ago, and people were genuinely surprised and impressed by its realism.
“Whoa! Wait, what? That's a painting?!” Reddit user JazzyBean_ wrote. While Reddit user LiveAbalone commented, “I thought that was taken by a Canon EOS 6D Mark II!”
“I also did a double-take here thinking it was ‘just’ a really nice photo,” wrote Celestial_Robot_Cat.
And, Reddit user Canamsmalltowngal agreed they also “had to look twice to see that it really was a painting.”
The artist behind the masterpiece, Kimberly Schultz, of Madison, Wisconsin, told Vancouver Is Awesome she was flattered by the positive response. The semi-professional artist, who’s a full-time legal administrative assistant by day, said a Vancouverite who was living in the U.S. commissioned her to paint the city.
“He and his wife met while working on the Lions Gate Bridge together, and they had been feeling homesick, so he commissioned me to do the painting as a surprise Christmas gift for his wife,” Schultz said.
The 29-year-old said the painting even included the couple’s old apartment building and a bar they used to go to.
“I hope they see home whenever they look at it, and all the happy memories they had there,” Schultz said.
Despite not having visited the city, Schultz described Vancouver as “visually stunning and totally unique.”
“You have water, mountains, bridges, skyscrapers, trees—there's so much variety in the landscape, so it's impossible to get bored painting it,” she said.
The detailed 24x36 inch artwork took Schultz, who has been painting since 2014, about four months to complete. She said her paintings were created in multiple layers.
“My process is about 10 per cent getting an initial draft and 90 per cent comparing it to the reference and fixing it,” she explained.
Schultz said there were many factors at play that contributed to how realistic an art piece appeared.
“You need to learn to see what's in front of you in a purely objective way, and practice...a lot,” she said.
“I went to school for art, and one of the best tips I learned there was to ‘draw and paint what you see, not what you think you see.’ For example, lines aren't created by drawing or painting lines, they're created by the juxtaposition of highlights and shadows; perspective and foreshortening can distort how long or short an object appears.”
But, this wasn't the first time Schultz had been asked to paint the perfect picture of Vancouver.
Schultz said the city was special to her because of another painting she created about five years ago for Linus Media Group, a tech company based in Surrey. She said the painting gained quite a bit of attention on social media and she ended up meeting a ton of people in the tech community as a result—including her soon to be husband.
“I can safely say that my life would be drastically different today if I hadn't done my first Vancouver painting,” Schultz said.
“So for that reason, Vancouver holds a very special place in my heart.”
Schultz said she hoped to visit Vancouver in person one day soon and experience its beauty firsthand. She said most of her commissions were for pet portraits, but she occasionally had requests for landscapes, cityscapes, and portraits of people.
You can see more of Schultz’s work on Instagram @kimberly.schultz.
