Draft:Wilf Perreault

Wilf Perreault SOM (born October 6, 1947) is a Canadian artist and sculptor.

Biography
Wilf Perreault was born on his family's farm, halfway between Albertville and Henribourg, twenty-five kilometres northeast of Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, to parents Armand and Eveline Perreault (née Nobert) in 1947. His family emigrated to Canada from Europe hundreds of years ago and lived in Albertville, Henribourg, St Denis, and Prud'homme. In 1949, Armand Perreault moved his family to Saskatoon in 1953.

While growing up in Saskatoon, Perreault received private art lessons from the great Saskatchewan painter, Ernest Lindner. His formal art training began at the University of Saskatchewan, where his interest in representational painting conflicted with the New York-style abstraction, prevalent in Saskatchewan at that time. Under the instruction of Otto Rogers and Bill Epp, he instead focused on abstract sculpture.

After graduation (BFA (Honours) in 1970, BEd in 1971), Perreault relocated to Regina to teach art at the high school level. With thoughts of returning to representational painting, he began to search the city for inspirational subject matter. He unexpectedly found his muse in a back alley one day, where he had stopped to look at the reflection of sky and buildings in a puddle. Looking up, he saw, not a typical Regina back lane, but a hidden cityscape to capture his imagination. The reflections in puddles is a device he uses to explore the meeting of reality, representation and abstraction. By portraying the back lane at different times of the day and year, this subject has sustained his interest throughout a long career. Memory and nostalgia play a large role in both Perreault's practice and the viewer's experience of the work; a major contributor to their charm. These secret cities reveal intimate local knowledge, and are frequently recognized or mistaken for specific spots.

Perreault has painted with oils, watercolour and acrylic, on canvas, paper, and aluminum substrate. He also is known for his original silkscreens on paper or Lexan ( polycarbonate resin thermoplastic), produced using the photo emulsion method, where a screen is created for each colour.

Perreault finds comparisons between his career as a teacher and his art stating: "Teaching is a bit like painting back-alleys. It's taking an ordinary subject and turning it into something beautiful: taking students who aren't turned on to art and seeing the lights go on for them once they discover art. It's really something wonderful."

Awards and press
Wilf's work has earned him a large and growing number of exhibitions,  , commissions and awards in and outside of Saskatchewan. In 1989 he was chosen to represent Canada and was awarded a Silver Medal in Les Jeux de la Francophonie in Maroc, Africa—a juried exhibition of work by artists from 42 countries. He is a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts, and was awarded the Saskatchewan Order of Merit in 2016.

Wilf Perreault's paintings are in many public and corporate galleries, as well as private collections.

On September 27, 2014, Wilf Perreault: In The Alley, a Retrospective Show opened at the Mackenzie Art Gallery, where it remained on view until February 1, 2015. It covered over 40 years of work and over 40 pieces of art, plus many of his popular silkscreens.

Canadian poet Robert Currie cites him as an inspiration. In 2022, Perreault's painting "There is Light on the Horizon" was featured on Twitter account "Canadian Paintings", ultimately receiving more than 13.9K likes and +2200 re-tweets.

Gallery of Artworks
Perreault, Wilf- Headlights, acrylic on canvas, 24x60", 2017

Public works

 * "Reginald" (Regina Lawn Decoration), 2500 block of Albert Street at Leopold Crescent Regina, Saskatchewan (1986)