SAN­DRA L BLOOD

blood­san­dral@ya­hoo.com

Abode, an ex­hi­bi­tion by self-taught artist Gabrielle Hut­ton, opened this week at Arn­im’s Art Gallery, 27, Tra­garete Road, New Town, Port of Spain. Ex­hi­bi­tion hours are from 8 am to 4 pm un­til Au­gust 7.

Hut­ton, a teacher, works with a com­bi­na­tion of wa­ter­colours, pen and ink to cre­ate her high­ly de­tailed pieces. She sees a lot of beau­ty in things that are aged and is in­spired by char­ac­ter and per­son­al­i­ty—the small­est de­tail—par­tic­u­lar in old homes across the coun­try.

“My work evokes feel­ings of fa­mil­iar­i­ty and com­fort of home. Clothes on the line waft­ing in the Caribbean breeze, pothounds tak­ing a nap on the front stairs, chil­dren walk­ing home from school, the old lat­tice­work, jalousies, wood­en Vic­to­ri­an ac­cents, vin­tage de­tails . . . the weak­en­ing, droop­ing roof are just some of the Tri­ni things de­pict­ed in my pieces," Hut­ton ex­plained.

Just Passing

"These time­worn dwellings fea­ture in­cred­i­ble de­tails with the sole pur­pose to be beau­ti­ful for the view­er. This gives each home its own vibe and per­son­al­i­ty, and I work with a va­ri­ety of medi­ums—graphite, acrylic, oil and wa­ter­colour.”

Hut­ton said she has al­ways had a love for draw­ing and paint­ing and gets a lot of sup­port, re­spect and en­cour­age­ment from her fam­i­ly and friends. She cur­rent­ly di­vides her time teach­ing art at St. An­drew’s Pri­vate School in Mar­aval, paint­ing at home and, with her hus­band, car­ing for an­i­mals in need.

“My love for an­i­mals and art can be seen in my pieces, which of­ten in­cludes a Tri­ni ter­ri­er or wan­der­ing street cat. Not on­ly is my home a space to bring my pieces to life, but it’s al­so an an­i­mal fos­ter-care space where un­want­ed an­i­mals get a fight­ing chance to en­joy life,” she said.

To reach Hut­ton, view col­lec­tion on­line or for fur­ther in­for­ma­tion, di­rect mes­sage to the fol­low­ing: In­sta­gram @gab­byju­ne­o­rig­i­nals; Face­book - Gabrielle Hut­ton, or call 622-9139, 752-4504, or 714-4550.

Gabrielle Hutton