Celebrated Trinbagonian artist Donald “Jackie” Hinkson estimates that in his lifetime so far he has painted approximately 12,000 watercolours and produced about 10,000 crayon drawings.
An honorary graduand of The UWI, Hinkson has donated over 70 personal sketchbooks with original artwork to the Special Collections within the West Indiana and Special Collections Division of the Alma Jordon Library (AJL) to be preserved and shared as documentary heritage.
The current exhibition of 32 pieces of his work on the ground floor of the library is part of the 50th anniversary celebrations of the AJL. It is but a small fraction of Hinkson’s body of work, yet represents his aesthetic from 1982 to present.
In 2019, one of his murals, a 110 foot temporary installation, was placed alongside of the southern wall of the AJL, spanning the entire length of the front of the building. Hinkson had wanted to do a work that was monumental and that would capture the history of this land and our attitudes towards money and economics. He worked with several panels over several years. The 2019 exhibition at the front of the library is the first time it was mounted as a whole and our community was able to see the work as one cohesive piece.
In an act of supreme senselessness the mural was vandalised. In the aftermath, Hinkson said, “this incident does not shock me. It disappoints me but it does not shock me. Incidents such as this will not deter me from showing the work.”
He’s kept his word, once more sharing his work and his knowledge with the campus community and its visitors.
Thus far, the artist, in collaboration with the AJL, has used the exhibition to facilitate workshops for art students as well as a meet-the-artist Q&A event. There, he graciously hosted enthusiastic patrons from the general public who asked various questions about his approach to painting, an approach he has honed over his 60 years of painting.
The AJL building, an iconic structure at the southern side of the campus, was officially established in 1970. In 2011, the building was renamed after Dr Alma Jordan, UWI St Augustine’s first campus librarian, who served from 1960 to 1989.
The watercolours on display at the library speak of Trinidad and Tobago’s history – with images emblematic of key former ways of life such as the sugar mill and the aqueduct.
On the other hand, there are pieces with more vivid colour that reflect life in more recent times. The piece “Family Wants Answers” for example, depicts an incident of tyre burning and protest, with residents and police gathered around. Hinkson says that his work is a response to happenings in the society.
“I was just responding emotionally to different phenomena in the society and these may have been concurrent,” he recounts.
Sometimes Hinkson uses vivid colours that, as he says, convey his awareness of the heat. At other times, as with the watercolours, the effect is more “sombre” and “grey” as he says. He noted that one piece, “Lapeyrouse Robbers” depicting midnight robbers by the cemetery, turned out similarly dark and sombre, with skull-like faces under the hoods of the midnight robbers, and Hinkson feels that this depicts the violence in the community.
His focus is on working hard and constantly improving his technical skills and knowledge. Even so, like any other human being, he responds to events. This response gets translated into visual symbols in a way he cannot consciously articulate.
He says, "I let the vision come through while I focus on the visual aspect."
