Norman Takeuchi grew up in Vancouver although some of his earliest memories are of the interior of British Columbia where his parents were forced to relocate along with all other Japanese Canadians during the Second World War. At the end of the war his family returned to Vancouver where he ultimately attended the Vancouver School of Art.

Upon graduating in 1962 with a painting scholarship, he moved to London, England to concentrate on painting and exhibiting. After a year he returned to Canada to work in Ottawa as a designer on Expo 67 while continuing to paint and show his work. A Canada Council grant in 1967 took him back to London for another year to continue with his art, following which he returned once again to Ottawa to work as a designer, first for Expo 70 and then for the Canadian Museum of Nature. In 1996 he left his design career to become a full-time artist and has since participated in many solo and group exhibitions. His work is represented in the permanent collections of the Canada Council, Carleton University Art Gallery, Confederation Gallery in Charlottetown, P.E.I., the Ottawa Art Gallery, Mitel Corporation, a number of commercial galleries, and in private collections in Canada and abroad.

Artist Statement ( Active Ingredients)

"These works on canvas are part of my on-going, and continually evolving, exploration of abstract images. Abstraction is enormously appealing because it presents endless opportunities for experimentation and improvisation.

Beginning with small collage sketches, the paintings grow in unexpected ways and the resulting pictures become inhabited by strange forms and textures which may be mysterious and inexplicable to the viewer, but to me they are intimate and valued inventions. Plant forms, landscape, and nature in general, long-time preoccupations of mine, make their way into the compositions. While the shapes are carefully formed and placed, accidents can happen and when they do, they are either allowed to stay and contribute or are made to disappear. With each painting, discoveries are made and passed on to the next one and so the evolution continues."