Takao Tanabe - Parksville

Takao Tanabe is a landscape artist of international reputation and an influential teacher of younger generations of Canadian artists. The son of a commercial fisherman, Tak Tanabe was born in Prince Rupert in 1926. During the second World War, he was interned with other Japanese-Canadians in British Columbia's Interior.

He has painted and studied in Winnipeg, New York, England, Italy, Denmark and Japan. He has served as head of the art department at the Banff School of Fine Arts and has also served on juries and committees at the National Capital Commission and Canada Council.

Tak Tanabe's landscapes are evocative of British Columbia at its finest - the rolling hills and grassy meadows of the Cariboo, the lonely seascapes, intriguing cloud formations and breathtaking dawns and sunsets of the coast, and the winter beauty of snow and ice.

Powerful straight-line horizons dominate his works. His skies can be dark and foreboding or brilliantly coloured, sometimes reflected in the water or shading the land below.

Working now from his studios in Errington, near Parksville, and Vancouver, Tak Tanabe's outstanding achievements in the world of art continue to be recognized and much sought-after by collectors across Canada and around the world.