STILL LIFE WITH LEMONS

Artist: Gordon Perrier (1935-2014)

Medium: Watercolour on paper

22" x 30"

Gordon Perrier was born in Northern Saskatchewan and grew up in Hamilton, Ontario where he attended Central Secondary School. Mainly self-taught, Perrier’s artistic talents were clearly evident in his first job as a professional designer for the T. Eaton Company Limited. He built a significant career in commercial art in subsequent positions as a major designer of promotional interior and display advertising for such notable companies as Kellogg’s Canada, Heinz Foods, Lawson-Jones Printers, Rouse & Mann Printers and Bell Canada. 

Perrier was additionally respected for his skills as a fine artist. His sister, Lynn Perrier, described how her brother “had a relationship with the Group of Seven.” She recalls: “it was Lawren Harris who wanted Gord to enrol in the Ontario College of Art after seeing his work at the Doon School of Fine Arts [now the Homer Watson Museum and Gallery].” Perrier did receive formal training at the Hamilton Technical Institute under Jean Wishart and Hortense Gordon. 

When describing his own theories, Perrier insisted that art is not complicated. Rather, art is a quality, not an idea or fantasy displayed. Primarily a watercolourist who also painted in oils, Perrier described his work as non-objective, semi-abstract and realistic (transparent) watercolour. Additionally, he described the medium of watercolour as delicate and expressive as well as “probably the most difficult medium…very subtle…[and] much more difficult to handle than oils.” Through his paintings of still-life scenes of fruit and flowers (notably lemons and tulips), landscapes of various places he lived (primarily in Southern Ontario) and the lyrical qualities of his nude figures in transparent watercolours, Perrier was able to tap into a state of being and harmony with the source of creativity. He often used the term “the source” in his endeavour to explain what true art is. For him, art expressed energies from the source, only revealed through a subject or situation. Perrier was an artist who committed himself to the creative process and understood that art is about aesthetic spiritual quality. 

His extensive teaching career began in Hamilton, with later positions in London, Ontario (1960-1964), at the Thames Art Gallery in Chatham, Ontario (1964-66), and the Banff School of Fine Arts (Alberta, 1968) followed by a period in the USA and Mexico. He returned to Hamilton in 1975 to fulfil the role of senior painting instructor at Dundas Valley School of Art, where he taught until his death in 2014. 

Throughout his artistic career, Perrier’s paintings were exhibited in important Canadian juried exhibitions with the Ontario Society of Artists, The Art Association of Montreal, The Canadian Society of Painters in Watercolours, the Young Canadian Contemporaries, the Hamilton Winter Show, the Western Ontario Art League Annual, and the Annual Winnipeg Show. Additionally, he had a number of solo exhibitions in Ontario including at the Burlington Public Library (1958), the Imperial Order Daughters of the Empire (I.O.D.E.) Provincial Headquarters in Hamilton (1958), the Shute Institute in London (1961) and the Thames Theatre in Chatham (1964, 1966). Perrier was also the recipient of several prestigious awards including the American Commercial Graphic Society Award, Chicago (1962- 63) as well as the Jurors’ Award and Purchase Award in the Winnipeg Show. Perrier painted for the sake of painting and believed the prime purpose of art is self-expression. He was an outspoken artist who always painted the way he felt regardless of current art trends. Throughout Perrier’s illustrious life, he was a distinguished fine and commercial artist, committed art educator, valued community member as well as a beloved family member and friend. 

Artist’s Statement  
Art is quality. It is not an idea or a fantasy displayed. It expresses energies from the source… the source being revealed through a subject or situation. It manifests a state of being.