Miyuki Tanobe (born 1937 in Morioka,

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

) is a Japanese-born

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painter, based in

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

, Quebec. She is known for her paintings of the everyday life of Montreal residents. Her work is in the collections of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, the Musée du Québec, Lavalin,

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, and Shell Canada, and Selection du'' Reader’s Digest''. She is a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts.

Early life and education

Tanobe was born in 1937 in Morioka, Japan. Because there was a violent snowstorm raging on the day she was born, her parents named her Miyuki, which means "deep snow". Tanobe attended Japanese primary and secondary schools. In 1963, possessing incipient artistic gifts, she painted at the studio of La Grande Chaumière in

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before registering at the

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's leading school of fine arts. Miyuki Tanobe’s arrival in

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in 1971 came as a result of a chance meeting in Paris with Maurice Savignac, her future husband, a

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from Montreal.

Work

Miyuki Tanobe’s work reflects a freedom of action. She paints principally on rigid supports such as wood or masonite sheets. Her panels are filled with scenes that she has observed like children playing

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. Tw ...

. Her modern primitive works depict everyday life in the working-class neighborhoods of Montreal with humour and great sensitivity. She transforms "humble and unavoidable reality" by reformulating it, adding or deleting elements depending on her assessment of their contribution to the scene. A painting by Miyuki Tanobe goes to the heart of the matter: the artist is interested in opening the viewers' eyes so that they may better see the familiar and adjust their perceptions of what they think they know. In 1980 Tanobe illustrates the song "Gens de mon pays" by

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and in 1983 she creates pictures for The Tin Flute by

Gabrielle Roy Gabrielle Roy (; March 22, 1909July 13, 1983) was a Canadian author from St. Boniface, Manitoba and one of the major figures in French Canadian literature. Early life Roy was born in 1909 in Saint-Boniface (now part of Winnipeg), Manitoba, an ...

. The colours in Miyuki’s paintings are rich and full of contrast. Working with superimposed layers and applying

pigment A pigment is a powder used to add or alter color or change visual appearance. Pigments are completely or nearly solubility, insoluble and reactivity (chemistry), chemically unreactive in water or another medium; in contrast, dyes are colored sub ...

s with her pliable, flexible Japanese brush, Miyuki Tanobe succeeds in revealing unexpected aspects of the objects and people she depicts without making them difficult to read. She paints in Nihonga. She is a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts. In 2012 a mural was painted for Tanobe in

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Collections

Her work is found in the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, Musée de Joliette, Musée Saidye Bronfman, Montréal.

Recognition

In 1979, she was the subject of a

National Film Board of Canada The National Film Board of Canada (NFB; ) is a Canadian public film and digital media producer and distributor. An agency of the Government of Canada, the NFB produces and distributes documentary films, animation, web documentaries, and altern ...

documentary short ''My Floating World: Miyuki Tanobe'', directed by Ian Rankin, Stephan Steinhouse and Marc F. Voizard. *2012 :

Radio-Canada Radio-Canada may refer to: * CBC/Radio-Canada, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation *Ici Radio-Canada Télé, the CBC's main French-language television network *Ici Radio-Canada Première Ici Radio-Canada Première (formerly Première Chaîne) i ...

, Miyuki Tanobe and the mural of Verdun *1987 : Radio-Québec, ''Le Magazine'' *1985 : Radio-Québec, ''Arrimage'' *1982 :

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, ''Seeing It Our Way''

Published Work / Illustrations

* Roch Carrier, Miyuki Tanobe, Canada je t'aime = Canada I love you, Montréal: livres Toundra, 1991, 72 p * Miyuki Tanobe, Québec je t’aime, Montréal: Éditions Toundra, 1976, 48 p * Miyuki Tanobe,

, Les gens de mon pays, Montréal: Les éditions La courte échelle, 1980 * Yves Beauchemin, Cybèle, Coffret de luxe de sérigraphies, Montréal: Art global, 1982

References