Artist Information
Artist
Edward Goodall (1909-1982)Role
ArtistDate made
n.d.Time Period
20th CenturyNotes
ARTIST BIOGRAPHY
Born in Somerset, England, Edward Goodall was a Canadian artist known for his meticulous drawings, and later his paintings of Vancouver Island, B.C. and beyond. With a natural talent, he came from a family of successful artists (great grandfather, grandfather and more), and he studied art in Wales under the guidance of art master Marcus Holmes (1875-1951) of the Herkomer school. He then traveled, working on a tea plantation in India, later on to China and Japan, and then to Canada earning money for his trips by selling his drawings. He worked at many jobs, cutting ice blocks in Alberta, working on a cattle drive and in Victoria selling stocks and bonds. When World War II broke out, Goodall enlisted with the Royal Canadian Engineers. His art career really started after his discharge from the army, and his purchase of a house in Oak Bay, Victoria with a home studio.
In 1942 he applied for the copyright to “Goodall’s Pencil Postcard Series” and began drawing scenes of Vancouver Island creating more than 500 scenes for postcards. Through the 1950s he drew a series of west coast scenes for a British Columbia calendar, turning to painting later that decade. Other commercial commissions followed, including the Powell River pulp mill, Canadian Pacific Railway ships, the Kitimat smelter, a series on education facilities in Canada, and scenes for British Columbia’s 1958 centennial celebrations. As a member of the Alpine Club of Canada he climbed many mountains and turned his watercolours and sketches into calendars. By the 1960s he started to paint large watercolours on commission, and by the 1970s he was well known. He painted people’s homes, did personal Christmas cards for the Premier, Lieutenant-Governor, and others and also selling his photographs. Goodall rarely exhibited in galleries due to the nature of his production work, but in the early 1980s he had a solo gallery show in Victoria, selling out in an hour. Goodall was a member of the Island Arts and Crafts Society and later the Victoria Sketch Club.
