Lise Perrault: Artist, Historian, Conservationist, Legend.
January 27, 1923 – March 7, 2015
From Lise’s Obituary:
Lise was born on January 27, 1923 in the town of Ponteix to Napoleon and Bernadette Lacoursiere. Despite growing up during the depression, Lise always described her childhood as happy and carefree. They never felt want or need at any time because their father provided so well for his family.
After completing high school, she attended Normal School in Regina and became certified as a teacher. Her first teaching job was in Bronco, near Mankota. She then took a teaching job in Val Marie, where she met and married the love of her life, a young, handsome rancher known as Fernand Perrault. They were married on November 12, 1946 and Lise set aside teaching to become a rancher’s wife.
During the next five years, Lise bore 5 children, so her household became extremely busy and hectic. In the following years 4 more children followed making nine children in all. Lise then used her skills as a teacher and manager to train her children to help with all the necessary chores a ranching life brings.
Lise grew to love the Val Marie area, with its distinctive geography, history and wildlife. She sought to immortalize the scenic beauty of the area and produced many oil paintings, some of which have found their way to all corners of the world.
Over the years, she and Fernand accumulated many interesting artifacts, including arrowheads, fossils and antique farm tools. These formed a museum which Lise and Fernand were always proud to display to visitors to the area. If the visitors were up to it, a tour of the Val Marie hills would follow including walks to the snake pit and many other landmarks.
A naturalist by instinct, Lise loved bird watching and her bird identification book was never far from reach. Her home often became a refuge for some odd animals such as a bobcat, an eagle, and even a bear cub for a short time. In late August, she would love to lay on a blanket at night to watch the meteor showers that would occur at that time.
When Lise and Fernand heard of plans for a National Park in the area, they threw their support behind it. When Grasslands National Park was established, much of their original ranch and farmland formed the nucleus of the new park.
Lise’s 92 years were filled with inquisitiveness, hard-work and adventure. It was a life well-lived worthy of emulating.
The Lise Perrault Collection at Prairie Wind & Silver Sage
We are fortunate to have some of Lise Perrault’s paintings in our collection at Prairie Wind & Silver Sage – Friends of Grasslands Inc. Here is a sampling of some of her work:
Oil Painting by Lise Perrault of her ranch land. Val Marie is visible in the background. Entitled “When A Man’s Word Was As Good As Gold” and depicts Walter Larson and Fernand Perrault 
Oil Painting by Lise Perrault, dated 1982. Entitled “Cypress Hills” 
Oil painting by Lise Perrault on bovine scapula, depicting prairie dog colony 
Oil painting by Lise Perrault, on bovine scapula, depicting a barbed wire fence in winter. 
Oil painting by Lise Perrault, on bovine scapula, depicting bison on a prairie dog town.
