ABOUT
In the late 1960s, Ron Woodall began a crusade to preserve the rich stories and history embedded in the vanishing vernacular architecture of Western Canada and the US.
After countless hours driving backroads through ghost towns and outposts, Woodall - a graduate of the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Montreal - collected thousands of photographs, many of which he later depicted in stunning watercolours.
In the mid 1970s, he published two books: Magnificent Derelicts: A Celebration of Older Buildings and Taken by the Wind: Vanishing Architecture of the West. These publications were followed by a sold-out exhibit in 1974 of his watercolours at Vancouver's Equinox Gallery in Vancouver.
He went on to pursue several diverse nd creative careers. He was the Creative Director of Expo 86 World's Fair in Vancouver, and worked abroad on several other World's Wairs. He was Creative Director for the planning of Science World and has worked on many other projects including a First Nations Heritage Village, music festivals and even a Las Vegas Casino.
He wrote and produced an OmniMax film, and has been Creative Director at three of the largest ad agencies in the world. He created the award-winning Great A&W Root Bear commercials which were awarded "Campaign of the Decade". He has earned the television industry's Lifetime Achievement Award and last year, was inducted into the Canadian Marketing Hall of Legends.
Since moving to Bowen Island 23 years ago, Ron (now 90) has contributed over one thousand cartoons to the Undercurrent newspaper. He sees them as a form of cultural anthropology. He has also painted over five hundred watercolour portraits of local islanders.
He enjoys his quiet island lifestyle with his wife, Heather, and their pack of rescue dogs and cats from Mexico.
Magnificent Derelicts
Watercolours and Drawings
A farmer is dumbfounded that I would want to write about his barn and his grandfather who built it and the prairie fire that almost destroyed it in the forties. But he is also flattered because no one else has ever bothered to ask. So the floodgates of his memory open wide and he tours me through a lifetime which, in its way, has been colourful and creative and full, and deserves recording.
These buildings are lasting monuments to laughter and grief and birth and death and all the best and worst of times. They are all that remain of a family, a childhood, a lifetime. Everyone has gone. Forever. They have scattered and died, their furnishings, clothing, animals and automobiles have also vanished. But the old homestead, the barns and the stables, the stores on main street where they shopped, the mill down by the river where they worked, the church where they worshipped, the little school where they studied, sometimes stay, at least for a while. When these, the last physical evidence of a lifetime are gone, there is nothing left to remember.
That aside, these buildings are beautiful. They are pieces of folk art. Not because they are old and weathered and picturesque and quaint. Their beauty runs deeper. They embody the essence of a noble and resourceful lifestyle. There is intrinsic beauty in functional simplicity. There is beauty in craftsmanship that outlasts the craftsman. Even the quirky ones are beautiful. Take a good look at some abandoned canneries or linseed mills or rodeo chutes or hop dryers, railway roundhouses, breweries, water towers or brick kilns. They are honest and unique structures, all of them, and they will soon be gone.
Folvik Barn, Boundary Falls, BC
Ron Woodall
Watercolour and acrylic (1975)
37.6 x 27.5 in. (framed)
Price: $1500
Barn in Copperopolis, California
Ron Woodall
Watercolour (1978)
37.6 x 27.5 in. (framed)
Price: $1500
Alley buildings, Vernon, BC
Ron Woodall
Watercolour (1976)
37.6 x 27.5 in. (framed)
Price: $1500
McDougall Blacksmith, South Alberta, BC
Ron Woodall
Watercolour (1975)
37.6 x 27.5 in. (framed)
Price: $1500
Cannery Buildings, Steveston, BC
Ron Woodall
Watercolour (1975)
37.6 x 27.5 in. (framed)
Price: NOT FOR SALE
Sandlund Homestead, Boundary Falls. BC
Ron Woodall
Watercolour (1975)
37.6 x 27.5 in. (framed)
Price: $1500
Spahomin Mission Church, Spahomin, BC
Ron Woodall
Watercolour (1978)
37.6 x 27.5 in. (framed)
Price: $1500
Butcher Shop, Greenwood, BC
Ron Woodall
Watercolour (1978)
37.6 x 27.5 in. (framed)
Price: $1500
Barn in Saskatchewan, Canada
Ron Woodall
Watercolour (1975)
37.6 x 27.5 in. (framed)
Price: $1500
Stone Barn, Shoshone, Wyoming
Ron Woodall
Watercolour (1973)
37.6 x 27.5 in. (framed)
Price: $1500
Farmhouse in Alberta
Ron Woodall
Watercolour (1978)
37.6 x 27.5 in. (framed)
Price: $1500
Abandoned farmhouse, Saskatchewan
Ron Woodall
Watercolour (1977)
37.6 x 27.5 in. (framed)
Price: $1500
Farm in Duck Prairie, Saskatchewan
Ron Woodall
Watercolour (1976)
37.6 x 27.5 in. (framed)
Price: $1500
Barn, Whitehall, Montana
Ron Woodall
Watercolour (1977)
37.6 x 27.5 in. (framed)
Price: $1500
Farmhouse, Rock Creek, BC
Ron Woodall
Watercolour (1975)
37.6 x 27.5 in. (framed)
Price: $1500
THE DRAWINGS
PENCIL AND INK
Richie's General Store
Ron Woodall (1979)
Ink on paper
27.5 x 19.75 in. (framed)
Not for sale
Haynes Ranch House, BC
Ron Woodall (1979)
Pencil on paper
27.5 x 19.75 in. (framed)
Not for sale
Macdonald Cattle Barn, North Fork, BC
Ron Woodall (1979)
Pencil on paper
27.5 x 19.75 in. (framed)
Not for sale
St. Nicholas (1899) Spahomin, BC
Ron Woodall (1979)
Pencil on paper
27.5 x 19.75 in. (framed)
Not for sale
Higgins House (1885) Victoria, BC
Ron Woodall (1979)
Pencil on paper
27.5 x 19.75 in. (framed)
Not for sale
Lees Corners General Store
Ron Woodall (1975)
Pencil on paper
27.5 x 19.75 in. (framed)
Not for sale
Barn at Hat Creek House, BC
Ron Woodall (1975)
Pencil on paper
27.5 x 19.75 in. (framed)
Not for sale
Books
Magnificent Derelicts
A Celebration of Older Buildings
By Ronald Woodall
Published by J.J. Dougls Ltd., Vancouver, Canada (1975)
Taken By The Wind
Vanishing Architecture of the West
By Ronald Woodall and TH Watkins
Published by General Publishing, Ontario, Canada (1977)
