Member’s Exhibition
Rural Decay
Fading landscapes, and crumbling infrastructure, there is beauty in the breakdown.
This exhibition is a collection of works from community members who were asked to ruminate on the question of rural decay.
The works submitted lean into and celebrate the impermanence that is reflected in our rural landscapes.
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Ghost Forest
Cathy Routledge
Watercolour on Yupo, Mounted on Canvas
14” x 20”
2022
$375
5
I was travelling through Alberta earlier this summer and was struck by the vibrant and joyful canola crops. It made me consider the echo of the forests that once filled many of those fields. This piece encourages me to be mindful of their history and their patience, waiting to claim these tamed spaces back again.
Still Standing, but Barely- Alert Bay, Garry Island
Charlotte Mougeot
16” x 20”
2022
$260
52
I Lean
Martin Hill
20” x 14.5” x 1.5”
2022
SOLD $400
20
Some barns are well maintained over the years…this one was not.
Courtenay Building
David Ballantyne
8” x 8”
2021
SOLD $300
10
Oil Painting oil on canvas of the rear of an abandoned old building in Courtenay. Courtenay may not be very rural now but when this building was built it was.
Yesterday’s Home
Peter Larsen
Oil on Hand Stretched Canvas
27” x 27”
2008
35
Impermanence
Dawne Brandel
23” x 24”
2022
$950
4
Life is a constant reminder that all is impermanent.
This boat shell was lying on the beach at Union Bay and made me wonder at the stories she could tell.
All of us carry our stories in our shells on this journey and how wonderful and important to pass them on.
Divine Decay
Ani Mcgilvary
Photograph
8” x 10”
$140
2
While I was travelling in southern France I came upon a demolition which had stopped due to the surprise discovery of this old church window.
Remnants of Time
Janet Lawrence
Acrylic on Canvas
24” x 18”
2022
$300
37
When I think of rural decay my thoughts immediately go to the farming sector. Progress and technology, although good in many respects, do have their casualties, and have greatly led to the decline of farming communities everywhere.
Many farmers have been replaced with new, more efficient machinery, and can no longer sustain a living from the land. They have been forced to leave their lives behind and move to more urban areas in order to provide for their families. Land which could, at one time, support several families can now only provide a living for a single farmer.
This has left the countryside dotted with decaying homesteads and fading memories. My painting, Remnants of Time, represents these homesteads and the families that had to leave them behind.
Cortes Car
Izaak Tidler
Photograph
14” x 22”
2019
$200
7
I have been taking a lot of photos on Cortes Island that relate to the theme "Rural Decay" and calling them found art as they are mostly cars, boats and buildings that I find in the wild that have gone to ruins and nature as begun to reclaim them. Here is one of my better car photos.
Climate Warming-Rising Ocean
Elaine Curran
14” x 18” on Cradled Panel
2022
$475
9
Rural decay takes place on land and sea.
With climate warming occurring, oceans are rising, creating high tides and great erosion taking place on water’s edge and beaches. This is simply my raw and honest impression of what is taking place.
Gateway to?
The Abandoned “Working Ranch”
Christina Thorsell
Acrylic Painting
20” x 24”
2022
N/A
8
The Ponte Vecchio Bridge
Vivien Frow
Watercolour and Micro Pen
22” x 17”
2010
$650
17
The Ponte Vecchio Bridge in Firenze Italy - a magnificent example of a slow decay over the centuries. A work of Art built by great artisans. Just a short tunnel walk away from Pitti Palace who's residents would have considered their Boboli Gardens a "Rural area". While in the "Q" for the Uffizi, I started sketching this 'gem'.
Homestead - Showing It’s Age
Rosemary Fontenla
Acrylic
16” x 12”
$225
16
Corrosion
Margie Davidson
Natural Cotton Material, Naturally Hand Dyed Cotton Fabric with Alder Catkins, Cotton Embroidery Thread, All altered by Rusting Process
9.75” x 10.5”
2022
$100
27
My process started by making use of my collection of rusted found objects. These forgotten decayed bits and pieces were used to alter the cotton fibres of both fabrics and embroidery threads. I responded to the colours and markings with daily hand stitching over the month of September 2022, thus marking the passage of time.
The Sun Didn’t Hear
Melloney McNabb
14” x 20”
2022
$180
30
Mixed media, all from thrift shop finds. The piece is trying to highlight that time is ticking on and the earth is suffering. We may return to a much darker time if we don’t address some of the issues facing the planet. Actions not just words.
Last Mooring
Pamela Dimanno
12” x 16”
2020
$275
33
Boat found on the Fraser River holding all the memories of those who enjoyed it.
Barrels and Brambles
Alexandra Carr
12” x 16”
2022
$400
53
Blackberry brambles spring up overnight and take a life of their own. Give them and inch and they take a mile. Here I are some broken down wood barrel planters becoming one with nature and falling into chaos; while the brambles slowly take over.
Rural Object D’art
Ionne McCauley
Watercolour Mounted on Board
8” x 10”
2022
$250
39
An old Cockshutt forklift tractor parked to rest in our orchard, which we (unbelievably now) used for logging many years ago, with a Volvo car seat added after the original seat failed. This old implement has stories of farming, logging and life on our small farm in it's history and now sits as an object to draw and paint as it rusts and returns to the ground. My sheep love to rub themselves on it. I have sketched and drawn this many times.
Skalu
Linda Spenard
16'“ x 20”
2022
$500
42
While this stranded fishing boat in Alert Bay is derelict, it still possesses a stark beauty. Imagine the stories it could tell from its former glory days!
Mountain Strata I
Elaine Smith
Acrylic, Mixed Media and Collage on Paper
9” x 7”
2021
$250
19
The attached artworks come from my process of painting landscapes on paper, either plein air or from photos I’ve taken while hiking. I then hand tear the paintings, deconstructing what is seen, then collaged them on paper. This allows the viewer to see the new landscape, not from reality but in a new form, allowing a more creative interpretation of the landscape.
Swimming Pool, Saskatchewan
Don Emerson
16” x 20”
1999
$125
55
The long-abandoned swimming pool rests in the garden of a ranch approximately 30 kilometers east of Saskatoon. Symbolically, it reflects the drought conditions so common on the Prairies in recent times and the movement of people, and in particular young people, away from the country for economic reasons. The pool will most likely never be repaired to its original state; only memories of happier times reside in the spreading cracks.
Sanctuary
Deb Peters
Acrylic
24” x 24”
$250
11
As reminiscent of many settlers buildings, this church is one of many showing the history of British Columbia. Most of the congregation today in these historic churches are the wildlife that roam around the woods.
The Lost Wagon Wheel
Phyllida Drummond
Oil
14” x 17”
2022
$500
14
If Walls Could Talk
Rita Gibson
Watercolour
24” x 24”
2022
$700
21
Courtenay River Idyl
Jill Paris Rody
Pastel
23” x 26”
2015
$595
23
Rural Decay: this building, along the Courtenay River on Vancouver Island, has been a part of the River landscape for decades, and still stands after many floods. I have lived here for 50+ years and it was old back then. The beauty of the red rust on the tin roof is a delight amid the greens and browns of the River.
Beauty for Ashes
Trish Malcomess
16” x 16”
2022
$550
47
Once the Pentlatch People's Village site, now a legacy left by the coal mining industry.
Walking through Washer Creek Woods, you will find remnants of the historic Luhrig Coal Washer covered with graffiti as evidence of crumbling rural infrastructure. Discarded fishing gear, tyres and sundry metal items lie strewn throughout, while dandelions and fireweed push through the decay bringing beauty for ashes. Western Tiger Swallowtails flit through the area, adding a welcome splash of colour against the coal-blackened soil.
Old Grey House in Winter
Carol Kujala
18” x 18”
2019
$250
25
I lived all my adult life on the prairie in Alberta and Saskatchewan. I lived there long enough to experience the loss of small farms and towns as time moved on.
This house is in rural Saskatchewan. It was photographed on an extremely cold winter day when sky and land appeared as one space. This old grey-blue house looked so lonely and silent. I wonder who lived there and what was the life of its inhabitants like. I wonder why and when the last occupant left.
Taurus Serving
Mary Leigh Campbell
Monotype
24” x 20”
$550
28
Rural Decay might be interpreted as a toxic situation. A person who keeps on passing you a lot of "bull" can be irritating and boring...same old, same old. Then you can't remember a thing they tried to force down your throat....quite distasteful, and hard to swallow!
Vern’s Cabin
Carol Tidler
Acrylic on Canvas
20” x 24”
2022
$250
45
I’m a Comin’
Eileen Macdonald
Acrylic
10” x 12”
$55
56
Mists of Time
Rusty J. Joerin
18” x 14”
2019
$150
24
September Memories
Pauline Pike
Acrylic
16” x 20”
2022
$395
34
Family built this in the late ’60s..as a storage/ play area but unused since 1975, it holds many happy memories!
Ryan’s Retreat
Tiki Westnedge
10” x 14”
2013
$175
50
This is a scene by a trail in a rural area of Maryland, USA.
View Over the Bow
Kate Bridger
20” x 20”
2021
$550
49
There is nothing I like stitching more than that which has suffered the ravages of time, use and neglect … old trucks, abandoned buildings and other refuse. Behind each one there is a story that we may never learn but we can certainly speculate upon. I enjoy the texture and glorious imperfection and I hope that by shedding a little light upon these discarded objects, there is redemption.
This is one of the wrecks at Royston languishing in the waters as time continues to have its way with it.
Wabi Sabi Woodland
Clare Turcott
Oil on Canvas Framed
13.5” x 13.5”
2021
$395
48
Short Quote: However decayed or apparently chaotic, this scrubby woodland in the cooler season is an integrated ecology of nature in time and through time. Wabi Sabi: Elusive, transient beauty of impermanence and imperfection.
Dodg’y D’cay
Liz Andrusiak
16” x 12”
$275
54
Time and Space
Clive Lauzon
Digital Photography Printed on Archival Material
10” x 12”
2022
$75
6
Often growth outpaces decay.
Over many long years this tree absorbed an old wire fence.
They now share a space on the edge of some long forgotten property.
Defended by Daisies
Debra Kuzbik
Photography on Canvas
18” x 24”
2020
$250
12
Although time will eventually have its way with all of our structures, the gentle decay of this well-known local barn has been hastened by the hand of man. The detachment of daisies along the fence is no match for those who wish to destroy.
Decline and Renewal
Elaine Johnston
11” x 14”
2022
$80
15
A deteriorating farmhouse standing in the distance of a ripening canola field (near Melville, Saskatchewan) depicts an example of rural decay.
House on the Hill
Adele Cave
Photograph
16” x 24”
2015
$125
1
Imagine the memories that have been made in this simple, old, abandoned farmhouse in Merritt, BC. Perched on a hill, surrounded by tall grass swaying the breeze, she’s a thing of beauty to me.
Rust in Peace
Jim Sears
Pen and Ink with Watercolour Wash
10” x 12” Unframed
2021
$200
18
We usually make an annual pilgrimage to the Okanagan wine country to search out the best wines and most interesting vineyards. Last year we came upon a small winery with a long history, and when we went into the vineyard, we noticed this old farm truck off to the side as you entered the vineyard. One could imagine the truck going up and down the hill doing its daily work for many years. It was almost like it pulled off to the side on its last trip, and there it sits today as a tribute to the history of the vineyard.
The fall colours and the earthy tones of the rusting truck presented a great opportunity to capture the essence of the old truck in a state of advancing rust along with the vines in the background. The truck may have lost its ability to do work on the vineyard, but it has taken its place in being relevant to the story.
The colours of the rust mixing with the original paint and the bit of haze from the Okanagan fires offered a warm feeling to the picture, and the beauty in decay is apparent.
Encroaching Development
Laura Hilts
10.5” x 13.5”
2020
$400
22
Encroaching development into the countryside
Apocalypse Cab
Dave Ingram
Limited Edition (1 of 3)
18” x 24”
2014
$350
13
Dave Ingram is a photographer based on Vancouver Island, British Columbia. Ingram has a fascination with derelict buildings, empty spaces and other neglected areas. He has a particular affinity for the feeling and mood of these empty places and the abandoned objects that they contain. Ingram's photography explores the details that are often missed in day-to-day life: finding the extraordinary in the ordinary; visiting and documenting neglected places; and connecting feelings of isolation and separation symbolically with things that are overlooked. Rural and urban decay are themes that appear regularly in his work.
Open Spaces
Susan Schaefer
Acrylic on Stretched Canvas
2021
$865
43
Driving down old country roads you can explore and imagine the past.
A homestead, that use to be vital to the community, a place where the land was worked to feed the family, a place to raise a family, a place to share a meal with your neighbours...a place where dreams were made.
Steeped with history, it now sits empty and abandoned.
Transitioning, Mixed Media and Encaustic
Heather McAllister
16” x 16”
2022
$450
29
Nature dominates the rural landscape. We try to tame and cultivate her, but she easily takes back what was once hers. The work is an abstraction of the rural garden succumbing to nature as we ease off on our cultivation efforts.
Woodland Trinity
Norma Emerson
Miscible Oils
25” x 21”
$1300
32
Reunited
Janice Erwin
24” x 12”
2022
$225.00
38
Broken clay tiles, reworked by the power of the tides, hold a beauty of their own. These scattered fragments of crumbling infrastructure, seen by some as an indication of decline & decay, presented interesting abstract shapes that inspired the creation of this modern landscape interpretation. Using textural mediums, acrylic washes and a natural wood panel, they have been given new life.
Oil and Gold
Jacqueline Smith
15.5” x 12.5”
2014
$275
41
This piece portrays my feelings about the ravaging of the planet's resources of oil and gold leaving behind total destruction of the lands harvested.
Outside In
Susan White
Pastel on Sanded Paper
16” x 20”
2022
$665
44
This abandoned farm house slowly breaks down, aided in its decay by nature, asserting her dominance once more.
Through Three Windows
Sean Reilly
16” x 20”
2019
$300
40
The piece depicts a hollowed-out farmhouse framing the productive fields beyond. This piece typifies Rural Decaying in that the individuals that altered the land are long gone, but the altered landscape remains
Lost and Lonely,
but Still Loved
Liz Astill
Watercolour and Ink
15” x 12”
2022
$60
46
This old car is in Linley Valley and is slowly being taken over by the forest. Although rusting, it is loved by hikers and encourages you to walk the long way round the lake just to see it!
Quietly Waiting
Carolyn Yurkiw
Watercolour on 300lb Arche
19” x 23”
2022
$475
51
Unrequited Dreams
Nine Murphy
20” x 18”
2022
$450
31
My recollections of past country drives left me with glimpses of aspirations not achieved.