Artists

Shinya Kumazawa 

Shinya Kumazawa (b. 1970) was born and raised in Suwa, Japan. A basin surrounded by mountains and boasting a beautiful lake, Lake Suwa, the city has a long history of shrines and people protecting and deifying the mountains and trees for over 2000 years. 

Shinya’s fascination with the nature goes back to his childhood, when he fell in love with the stars. Even in the cold wintertime, nightly, he would take out his telescope to watch stars, planets and the moon.  

Shinya immigrated to Canada and has been living and painting in Toronto since 2000.  For the first decade, he devoted himself to painting nature in High Park.  Mesmerized by the shifting seasons as they unfolded over the 400 acres, ranging from blooming cherry blossoms from his homeland to the changing fall leaves and glittering snowscapes typical of the Canadian landscape, he has created over 100 paintings.  With 50% of this work physically painted in High Park, Shinya has not only drawn the attention of regular park visitors as he worked his canvases, but also the attention of the Park's wildlife - once having painted in the company of a coyote. The colours and contrasting lighting that typifies this Toronto gem is Shinya's muse.

 

 

 

Hanako Kumazawa

artist page: www.kumazawa.it/kuma/

Hanako Kumazawa (b. 1972) was born and raised in Suwa, Japan. She earned a degree in stone sculpture at Tama ArtUniversity, studying with Nobuya Nakai, then continued her education at Jannus Pannonius University in Hungary. She came to Rapolano Terme here in Italy to attend a professional training course in Stone Techniques, and studied with Mauro Berrettini.

In Siena, she attended a Conservation and Recuperation of Architectural Objects of Historic Interest, and was involved in the restoration of the mosaic on the exterior of Siena’s cathedral. Since 1994 she has participated in solo and group shows in Japan, Italy and Germany. Her small-and large-format works can be found in numerous private collections in Italy, France, Belgium, Poland, England, the United States, Canada, Australia, Singapore, Taiwan and Japan. She has also created several monumental sculptures for public spaces and parks in Italy and Japan.

Each of her works expresses gratitude for the abundance of gifts that nature offers to all men. And because she thinks that knowing how to make a job is the personal gift that nature has offered her, she uses it to try to show how many gifts, too often ignored, accompany our existence. Hanako resides in Rapolano Terme in Tuscany.