Artist: Odell Bennett
Title: Hoodoos on Highway 95 (inscribed on reverse)
Medium: Paint on thin, textured paper (paint type unidentified)
Date: Unknown
Purchased: November 12, 2026, Old Crow Emporium, Kimberley, British Columbia
For three years, I admired this painting at Old Crow Emporium in Kimberley, BC. Every time I visited the shop, I found myself drawn back to it. On November 12, 2026, I finally brought it home.
Signed Odell Bennett, the painting depicts the Dutch Creek Bridge and the hoodoos along Highway 95, between Fairmont Hot Springs and Canal Flats in southeastern British Columbia. A handwritten inscription on the reverse reads Hoodoos on Highway 95, Dutch Creek, British Columbia, possibly providing the painting's original title.
This particular stretch of the Columbia Valley has a very special place in my heart. My family has been visiting Fairmont Hot Springs for as long as I can remember, more than 40 years now. We have a timeshare villa there that originally belonged to my grandparents and was later passed down to my parents. Almost every November, we make the trip back.
Some of my fondest childhood memories are of those family vacations. First with my grandparents, and then with my mom, dad, sister, and uncle. Over the years, the family gathering has grown and changed. Now I return with my husband and son, alongside my parents, my sister and her family, and an extended circle of people who have become part of this annual tradition.
Fairmont is my happy place. It's the place I think about throughout the year, the place I dream of returning to. There's something about being there that brings me an incredible sense of peace. We don't need to have anything planned or anywhere in particular to go. I'm perfectly content just being there, surrounded by family, in a place that holds so many years of memories.
The Dutch Creek hoodoos have always been one of the familiar landmarks along the way. We used to take walks in the area when I was younger, and although we haven't done that as often in recent years, the landscape remains deeply familiar. It's one of those places that feels woven into the history of my family.
Perhaps that's part of what drew me to this painting. It's not simply a landscape I recognize. It's a place connected to so much of my life.
There's also something wonderfully distinctive about the artist's interpretation. The pale green steel truss bridge stretches across an intensely turquoise creek, with dark evergreens and the dramatic, sculptural hoodoos rising behind it. The colours are unexpected and lively, and the treatment of the rock formations is almost fantastical. I particularly enjoy the contrast between the carefully observed geometry of the bridge and the expressive, somewhat whimsical landscape surrounding it.
I've been unable to establish the artist's identity or any dates. I did find a very brief obituary that might be the artist, it reads: “Odell Madeline Francess Bennett passed away suddenly on December 26, 2009. A celebration will be held for Odell at the Seniors Centre located at 9400 College Street in Chilliwack.”
The painting is quite fragile, executed on very thin, textured paper that has suffered some deterioration over the years. The handwritten inscription on the reverse offers a small piece of its history, but no additional clues about the artist or when it was painted. It's a piece I'll need to have assessed for conservation, so that it can be enjoyed and preserved for years to come.
I'm particularly fond of artworks like this—paintings that may never have been exhibited in galleries or entered formal art collections, but which capture a particular place through the eyes of someone who felt compelled to paint it.
I wonder what Dutch Creek meant to Odell Bennett. Was it a familiar landscape, a favourite place to visit, or simply a beautiful scene worth recording? I'll likely never know, but I love the thought that someone else's appreciation of this place has found its way into my home, where it carries an entirely different collection of memories.
After three years of admiring it in the shop, and more than forty years of loving the place it depicts, I'm so happy this painting finally came home with me.
If you recognize the artist's name or know anything about Odell Bennett, I'd love to hear from you.
This is the frame the painting was purchased in, but looking at the back, it is wired to hang vertically, so likely just framed with what was on hand.
The back of the frame.
The inscription on the back of the paper:
Hoodoos on Highway 95
Dutch Creek
British Columbia
