San Murata – artist

San Murata is the great, great grandson of Tatsunosuke Hori, Diplomat and Translator for Commodore Matthew C. Perry, the US naval officer who negotiated the opening of Japan to the western world in 1854.  San spent his early years in Tokyo and in 1964 graduated  from the University of Musashi in Tokyo, Japan, with a degree in Economics. Ever curious and always adventurous, San traveled to Canada in 1968, to “have a look around”. “I was a young and crazy dreamer. Canadian people and their free style impressed me, so I decided to stay.” Before long arts organizations, small businesses and emerging television stations began to take note of the talented young man’s graphic design abilities. As an Art Director and Designer for local and network television, his work became iconic for their brands. At the same time he created numerous illustrations for books, magazines and newspapers.

Today, San lives in an historic small town east of Toronto. In his studio he paints scenes from  everyday life, depicted in a folk art style “with a twist”. San’s inimitable colour sense and style convey a truly magical spirit of place. His gouache paintings are lively, colourful, and whimsical yet display a mastery of what can be a very challenging medium. When San started painting in 1994, he chose to paint places he visited like northern Italy, the south of France and Greece.  Recently he has been painting the beautiful Northumberland countryside and the St. Lawrence townships of rural Quebec. San works from rough sketches and frequently paints from memory focusing on the mood or feeling of each scene. His paintings often have the feel of visual melodies which is not surprising because in addition to being a painter, San is also an accomplished musician, playing the jazz violin. He has played with many of Canada’s foremost jazz and pop performers and has been nominated by the National Jazz Awards as Violinist of the Year four times. Since 2004, San has toured Japan several times bringing his unique style to the jazz lovers of the Tokyo, Hokkaido and Kyushu areas of the country. He has produced four CDs and is working on his fifth.

A lover of tennis as well, San was the 2005 and 2006 Ontario Seniors Doubles Champion and in 2008, he took fourth place in the Eastern Canadian Senior Indoor National Championship Games.

San has received numerous awards for his work. In 1996 his illustration was selected by UNICEF New York, and in the late 1980s, an artwork commissioned for the YMCA by Roslyn Eskind was selected by the Smithsonian Institute for their permanent collection.

San lives in Port Hope, Ontario, Canada.