Artist Nicholas Huggins to take viewers on 'field trip' in upcoming exhibition

AFTER organising and successfully hosting his first solo art exhibition last year, local artist Nicholas Huggins said he would wait some years before doing another, because of the extent of work that went into it.

But while artists may take breaks, creativity never truly goes on vacation. Huggins returns to the Art Society, Port of Spain, on December 14 with another exhibition, titled Field Trip.

Huggins grew up in St Ann's and Maraval. He attended the Bishop Anstey Junior School, and then St Mary's College.

He also studied graphic design at the Savannah College of Art and Design in Georgia, US.

The founder of Backyard Design Co, is mainly known for his digital art, but also does traditional paintings, sketches and charcoal drawings.

He does both portrait and landscape art, with many being based on flora and fauna. His subjects range from old buildings to modern houses, to vehicles driving along roadways, to vendors selling on the street and birds taking flight.

And unless it is one of his sketches, ink or charcoal drawings, you can expect to see a rainbow of bright hues throughout his pieces.

He was the main artist behind the 2022 Google Doodle featuring the steelpan.

Back then, he had told Newsday that Google contacted him in June 2020 saying they were interested in working with him.

He has worked with several local companies, including Angostura, Hadco, Digicel, Bertie’s Pepper Sauce and Munch Kings Ice Cream.

You can also see his work on billboards, as well as at C3 Centre, East Gates Mall, the Queen’s Park Oval and Phase II Pan Groove panyard, where he has vibrant murals.

Last December, he held his first solo exhibition, Up To Now, which showcased all his work, “up to now,” at the time. He had only had his work featured in group shows before that.

As for Field Trip, he told Newsday, “This will be all brand-new work. A hundred per cent of the stuff that would be in this exhibition would have been finished in this calendar year.”

He said the name speaks to taking visitors on a “field trip of my art, mind and imagination.”

He added that it is also a nod to the nostalgia of things people enjoyed as children.

“Of course, all of the work is really, really inspired by TT. So all of the work is really going to be very reminiscent to people and very familiar to people as well.”

He recalled the amount of work which went into the 2023 exhibition and that he had said, “I don’t know if I’m going to be able to do something like this again for another couple of years.”

But the creative spirit had other plans.

“I started doing work this year. I made a post on Instagram every day just to kind of keep myself fresh in my creativity. And then by about May, I started seeing this kind of new body of work coming out and I was like, ‘You know what? Let me just strike while the iron is hot.’

“The last exhibition was received so well, so I said I would put on a second exhibition one time.”

He said last year, the overall planning was difficult, as he still runs his graphic design agency as well as doing his solo work.

“It was just a lot of work, because during the day I was doing my graphic design work, and then in the evening I'm doing my illustration work and making sure everything is good for the exhibition.”

He thanked his wife, Alex Huggins, for her support in making it happen.

The best-sellers last time around were his digital pieces and ink drawings, so he said he took note of that to guide his preparations for the upcoming one.

He is still fine-tuning some pieces; he spent around 40 hours in total on one of them.

“Sometimes I just don't like to keep track of the time (spent) because it can be kind of overwhelming…I’m always trying to push the needle forward in terms of my work.”

Huggins posts his digital work online regularly and deliberately. While he understands some people may wish to buy printed work from him, he said he also understands some people may just want to use it as a wallpaper.

“I have a story highlight (section of Instagram) that people could go and screenshot my pieces for that reason.

“People would show me their phone background and they'll be one of my pieces, and I'm really happy for that and I encourage people to use it.”

He said he is not too concerned about people possibly printing his work on their own, as his pieces are all signed and numbered, and the resolution, if they print it, would not be the best.

Naming his work is a special process for him, especially when it is going to be publicly showcased.

“I work on all the pieces and I lay them out how it's going to flow within the exhibition, and then name it.

“It’s kind of done to sort of tell a story when people are walking through the exhibition. So I like to see all the pieces completed and I like to see how everything is going to flow…I think the names are really going to guide the viewer through the exhibition.”

The titles include Bay View, Golden Hour, High Hope and Sunny.

He added, "I'm hoping to have a lot of small surprises in store so that when people come, it's going to be a little bit different to atypical exhibition."

The new work includes illustrations of Pigeon Point, the Magnificent Seven buildings in Port of Spain, and UWI.

The one of UWI, he said, “is going to be very architectural-based. That's the piece that I'm probably the most excited about and I'm most excited to see printed and hung up in the gallery.”

He hopes those who attended last year's exhibition can see "progression in the work and progression in the entire experience."

The exhibition, sponsored by Angostura, opens on December 14 from 5-9 pm, then runs from December 16-19 from 12-6 pm.

“Every single day I'm going to be at the gallery similarly to the last exhibition,” he said.

The Art Society is at Federation Park, Port of Spain.