Clint Hunker

Saskatchewan NAC Auction House Biography and Notes

Clint Hunker was born in Regina, Saskatchewan in 1954, and began painting Saskatchewan landscapes at the age of 16. He studied psychology and fine arts at the University of Saskatchewan (1973) and fine arts at the University of Victoria (1983-1984) before completing his Bachelor of Fine Arts (1984) and his Master of Fine Arts (1987) at the University of Saskatchewan. His studies exposed him to the artists who would serve as important influences on his work, including Reta Cowley, Lorna Russell, Dorothy Knowles, and David Milne. In 1987, Hunker became an instructor at the University of Saskatchewan. Hunker has worked in watercolour, oil, and pastel, and is committed to the prairie landscape as his subject. George Moppet writes, "The sense of privacy that emerges from these pastels and paintings stems from a reverence for nature, not as a permanent environment in which to live and work but rather as a place of renewal. Hunker's chosen sites are not areas of untouched wilderness or vast man-made landscapes of field and furrow, but rather intimate scenes which contain references to human activities and habitation." Hunker has exhibited across Canada, and his work is represented in the collections of the Canada Council Art Bank (Ottawa), Mendel Art Gallery (Saskatoon), City of Regina, Saskatchewan Arts Board, and Husky Oil, among others. Hunker has received awards including grants from the Saskatchewan Arts Board and the Judith Poole Memorial Award from the University of Saskatchewan. Clint Hunker lives in Saskatoon and continues to teach at the University of Saskatchewan.