Trash Can League

Armand Paquette was born in 1930 and spent his formative years in the North End of Winnipeg, Manitoba. His childhood was split between the urban environment of Winnipeg and the rural setting of The Pas, where his grandparents resided. These contrasting environments of city and country life provided the foundational subject matter for his future artistic career.

In the 1960s, Paquette relocated with his family to Arden, Manitoba, near Neepawa. During this period, his work focused heavily on the lives of the Stewarts, three siblings named John, Gracie, and Duncan who maintained traditional settler lifestyles. Paquette documented their daily routines and environment through painting. A recurring motif in his work from this era includes the family’s two horses, one white and one brown.

Paquette moved to Ladywood, Manitoba, in the 1980s. This move marked a shift in his thematic focus as he began to draw more extensively from his childhood memories of the North End. In the mid 1990s, this research into his personal history culminated in a specific series of paintings and sculptures portraying mid-century Winnipeg. Many of these works were later compiled and published in the volume titled Markings: Scenes and Recollections of Winnipeg's North End.

In addition to his career as a painter, Paquette developed a body of work in bronze sculpture. His three dimensional pieces are characterized as extensions of his narrative paintings, often featuring the same figures and chronological themes found in his two dimensional compositions. His work is represented in various corporate and public collections across North America, including the permanent collection of the Winnipeg Art Gallery.