Lot #26: Charming City Snowscape Scene Watercolour Painting Artist Signed San Murata

San Murata is an Ontario-based painter living in a historic small town near Toronto. Born in Japan, he graduated from the University of Musashi in Tokyo with a degree in Economics in 1964. In 1968, he travelled to Canada to have a look around, and liked it so much that he decided to stay. In Canada, he soon found himself building a career in graphic design and illustration, and worked for a time as an art director and designer for network television.San Murata started painting, full time in 1988, following a life-changing medical incident which caused him to leave the hustle of Toronto and move to the country. He began by depicting scenes from places he had visited in Europe and continued to develop using his Canadian homes in Port Hope and then Grafton, Ontario. San visits Japan every year for three months having painting exhibitions and following his other love, jazz violin. He has developed a style where his paintings depict everyday scenes in a technique described as folk art with a twist, using a unique colour repertoire to convey a sense of magic and whimsy. Recently he has celebrated scenery from closer to home, in Ontario and Quebec. He has had several exhibitions in Japan and Canada every year. most recently at public galleries and Museums. San Muratas work can be found in collections of the Smithsonian Institute, the Cooper-Hewitt Museum in New York, and UNICEF as well as the homes of distinguished Canadian and Japanese collectors.