Saskatchewan Artist

Wilf Perreault

Wilf Perreault was born in 1947 in the small French community of Albertville, Saskatchewan. He grew up in Saskatoon, taking art lessons from Ernest Lindner, his next-door neighbour. Under the tutelage of Otto Rogers and Bill Epp, he studied sculpture at the University of Saskatchewan, graduating in 1970. Perreault then moved to Regina. He taught high school art until the 1980s, when he started enjoying enough success in painting to paint full time.

Perreault's oil, acrylic, and watercolour paintings have been exhibited widely since his first solo exhibition at the MacKenzie Art Gallery in Regina in 1978. Best known for his “back alley” paintings depicting urban back lanes, Perreault also paints a variety of other subjects, including the natural world and portraits. He relates his teaching work to his art easily: “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.”

Perreault is a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts (RCA) and was awarded a silver medal in Les Jeux de la Francophonie in Maroc (1989) and the Queen's Jubilee Medal (2003). His work is part of the collections of the Dunlop Art Gallery (Regina), Mendel Art Gallery (Saskatoon), the Saskatchewan Arts Board, MacKenzie Art Gallery (Regina), Edmonton Art Gallery, and Goldman Sachs and Co. (New York), among many others.

Wilf Perreault lives and works in Regina, Saskatchewan.