Cecile Allen shared her artwork and some history of Barkerville with dozens of people at the Quesnel Art Gallery for an opening reception Sept. 18.
Her paintings feature different parts of Barkerville history including the historic Chinatown, a depiction of the blaze that burnt it to the ground and a very sad pony hauling ore out of a mine.
"There's a history in our Cariboo that needs to be observed because there were people here that played a pivotal part in the making of our whole community," Allen told The Observer. "I'm just a Cariboo gal. I grew up here in the Cariboo and I want people to know that I appreciate the history in the Cariboo and I want to accentuate that history."
In most of her paintings Allen hid a mink or marmot as they're considered staples of Barkerville.
Her painting of the sad pony was to represent the history of how beasts of burden were exploited during the Gold Rush.
"What they used to do with these little pit ponies is they take them down the shaft and they'd harness them all up in a little ball and they put them right down into the Earth," Allen said. She added that they would haul ore out of the mines and repeat the process in what would have been a very difficult life. "Everybody looks at it and goes 'oh that's so depressing' but really, that's part of our history. For the Barkerville series I've tried to include some fun stuff, I've tried to include the hard stuff."
She said life during the gold rush was hard for both the miners and the animals used to help transport things like ore and equipment. Allen said she likes to show the animals because of how significant they were in assisting miners.
"Nobody ever thinks about the horses, nobody ever thinks about the ox," she said.
Another one of her works depicts the Barkerville fire that burnt the historic town down in 1868. Allen said the fire started after a woman whacked a guy in the side of the head and caused the blaze by knocking a lantern into the Saloon. Other accounts of the fire say it started when a miner tried to kiss a woman and bumped into a stove, knocked over a pipe and started the fire.
The third piece she discussed during the opening of the exhibit is one of her favourites of the series. It shows the gate to Barkerville's Chinatown.
"I want to commemorate the Chinese people that came into our province and made such a big difference for what life we have today," she said.
Allen said she is very grateful to the Quesnel Art Gallery for allowing her to put her art in an exhibit. She has been working on the series for six years and she is very proud of the work she has done.
She's been drawing since she was in her 20s, she said she started working mostly with graphite and then began working with coloured pencils about a decade ago. She's completely self-taught and she enjoys exploring and commemorating the history of Barkerville through her work.
Her favourite places in Barkerville are: Richfield, because it is a beautiful area in spite of the grim history she described of a hanging tree and courthouse, and she also loves Chinatown in Barkerville.
"Our history is what it is and I just wanted to capture all of that," she said. People can go to the Art Gallery at 500 North Star Road and search Allen's paintings to find the mink and marmots and see her work.
The Quesnel Art Gallery is free to visit and is open Tuesday through Saturday 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., is located at the Quesnel Art & Rec Centre.
The Art Gallery's next exhibit "The Mundane" with Guillaume Schoon will begin Oct. 17.
Note: Barkerville Historic Park reached out to The Observer to say there was never a hanging tree at Richfield. They said there was only one instance of people being hanged in Barkerville and it was done using gallows which were destroyed immediately after.
