Keiko Tanabe Medium: Watercolor

Venice Canal III

www.ktanabefineart.com

858.793.8277

Keiko Tanabe is an award-winning watercolor artist who lives in San Diego.  Her paintings have been juried into many exhibitions across the United States and in Japan.  Her work has also been purchased by collectors in North America, Europe and Japan.  Mostly self-taught, Keiko embarked on a professional art career in 2005.  She has since won top awards in local art exhibitions and several important awards and recognition on a national level as well.  An active member of the San Diego Watercolor Society, she regularly exhibits her works in their gallery.  Her current portfolio includes cityscapes and landscapes of California, Europe and Japan.

A piece of Keiko’s work will be featured in the upcoming publication Splash 10: Passionate Brushstrokes (North Light Books).  Locally, she is one of the selected exhibitors at San Diego Hospice and Palliative Care in March and April, 2008.

Keiko says, “I have a passion for finding subjects at the grassroots’ level.  When I walk on a street in a far-away locale or in my neighborhood, I’m often attracted to a tiny slice of life of the ordinary people.  So the figures in my painting often set the mood in it, telling a story that, I hope, is both inspiring and entertaining to the viewer.”

Keiko was born in Kyoto, Japan.  As a child, she always enjoyed drawing and painting and won awards in children’s art contests.  However, art was not her chosen field of study.  After earning a Master of Arts in International Education at the University of California, Los Angeles, Keiko worked in international relations positions for a Japanese government trade organization in Tokyo, a law firm in San Francisco and a consulting firm in San Diego before she became a stay-at-home mother in 1996.  In the last 20 years, she has also traveled extensively in Europe, Asia and North America.