Born in Riga, Latvia in 1943, Mara Hofman immigrated to Canada with her parents as a young child.   She graduated from the University of Alberta in 1978 and pursued a sixteen year career in counseling.  Residing in Alberta until early 1999, she now lives  and paints on Skaha Lake in British Columbia.
Since her earliest recolections, Mara has been moved to express her perceptions of the world through art.   Primarily a self taught artist, she began to paint seriously in the early seventies and had her first one-person show in Edmonton at Gallery I.
Mara's work can be found in both private and corporate collections, her large works powerful enough and large enough to grace the largest of spaces.  Prior to her departure from Alberta, she was invited to mount a large solo exhibit on two levels of the Manulife Place in Edmonton.
Profoundly influenced by the dramatic beauty and energy of our Canadian environment, Mara conveys her vivid impressions with oils and palette knife.   She describes oil as a living medium which offers wonderful depth and dynamic colour.  Unique perspectives and distinctive style characterize her work.  Due to the subject matter Mara, chooses to work in larger canvases suitable for large rooms or corporate venues.  From broad landscapes to unusual closeups of mossy rock slopes, Mara's paintings find resonance in our love of our country.
For Mara, art is a means of communication that touches us on a level often obscured by language and narrow labels.   She feels that the true measure of her work is the extent to which that communication is meaningful to the viewer.