Wilf Perreault

Book excerpt: Wilf Perreault is in a class of artists known primarily for a single subject – in his case, the humble urban back alley. Coteau Books proudly joins forces with the MacKenzie Art Gallery to present a coffee-table book with more than a hundred full-colour images, accompanied by essays discussing the work of the artist best known as “Wilf”. Wilf Perreault contains an additional treat – 11 pieces of creative prose and poetry by Saskatchewan literary artists responding to Wilf's work in general, or to specific paintings that have inspired them. Walking up the alley with Wilf Perreault, we see how his work fits perfectly into the tradition established by Saskatchewan artists from Ernest Lindner to Joe Fafard to David Thauberger. His paintings are rendered in a breathtaking detail that asks us to take another, closer, look at the everyday. Born in the small Franco-Saskatchewan community of Albertville, Wilf Perreault studied art at the University of Saskatchewan and has been painting and teaching art in Regina since the early 1970s.