The centered Self, acrylic on linen, 40" x 30"
We are delighted to announce that painter Stephen Perrault has joined the gallery’s roster of outstanding national talent.
Vastly more complex than his present title of “artist” suggests, Stephen has a background in art, philosophy, theology and psychology. For ten years, working as a psychotherapist, he shared the lives of many, including the incarcerated. For thirteen years he lived in the context of seminary and religious life. Both these ways of life provided the artist with the opportunity to experience environments of architecture with light and darkness, containment and expansion.
Stephen recalls, “One day I was walking up a stairwell and noticed incredible light being cast on a wall from a window. I was so inspired to capture that light that I painted the walls of the stairwell blue and put a yellow stripe splashing in where the sunshine had seized a defining shape on the wall.” He soon found himself doing a lot of painting. At age 30, he realized he no longer felt a religious calling and left the sheltered walls of the monastery. Moving to inner city Chicago, Stephen pursued a graduate degree in psychology, continued his counseling work and began to spend more time painting.
Stephen is now a full time artist. His paintings are free from distractions and exhibit a purposeful pursuit of the minimum. The beauty of simplicity brings the freedom necessary in a search for what lies beneath and above the human person. Although his spaces reflect the precision, order and calm of the artist, ultimately Stephen’s art mirrors the spiritual journey as the observer yearns for meaning through the unseen mystery.
The recipient of many prestigious awards, Stephen has been profiled in numerous national publications including Southwest Art, American Art Collector, Watercolor Magic and Art and Antiques. His work hangs in private and corporate collections both at home and abroad.
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