Whether you were a budding or an established artist, or just curious about art, you were encouraged to visit the Jackie Hinkson Sketchpad Collection Exhibition held at the Rotunda of the National Library in Port of Spain from November 13 – 22, 2025.

Launched on November 12, 2025, this interactive exhibition curated by Hinkson, in collaboration with the staff of the Heritage Library Division of NALIS, featured some 200 sketchpads showing the preliminary perspectives, spontaneous lines, quick impressions and reflections of life seen through the creative mind of one of Trinidad and Tobago’s iconic artist known for his street art, large murals and wood sculptures.

Speaking at the launch, Paula Greene, Executive Director of NALIS said, “This exhibition’s unveiling marks a milestone in the cultural life of our nation as the sketchpads provide a visual diary and a chronicle of both the Jackie Hinkson’s personal experiences and national memory.” Sketches of colonial houses, nature, street life, steelpans, families, monuments, childhood memories, to name a few of the themes, had viewers in awe.

Hinkson was on hand every day to interact with visitors to the exhibition.  Given that some of the sketchpads on display are over 40 years old, to protect their integrity, visitors donned gloves to leaf through the pages of the books.

Also speaking at the launch was Dr Shamin Renwick, Campus Librarian, The University of the West Indies (UWI), St Augustine who re-counted her institution’s long-standing relationship with the artist. She mentioned the University’s awarding of an honorary Doctor of Letters to Hinkson in 2011, Hinkson’s donation of 60 of the Sketchpad to the Alma Jordan Library, and the temporary installation of a 110ft mural on the library’s southern wall.

On reflecting on his sixty plus years as an artist, Hinkson said that he retuned to Trinidad from studying abroad in 1970. He continued, “I was inspired by mainly urban landscapes and I immersed himself in drawing traditional architecture, from humble to the grand and then I slowly expended to subjects including everything in my physical and social environment, always from direct observation.  Sometime in the late 1980s, I began traveling with a sketch pad wherever I went, working indoors and outdoors throughout the country, across the Caribbean and beyond, always working quickly. Since then, I have begun to fill over two hundred sketchbooks with some six thousand plus sketches.”

He also said, “Now in my eighties and with a slightly unsteady hand, I am determined to adapt to any challenges and to fill many more sketch pads. I remain deeply grateful to my wife and family and to those who support me. Drawing remains for me a direct and intimate response to my physical and social environments.”

Hinkson has contributed immensely to the cultural expressions, traditions and stories of Trinidad and Tobago for some six decades.  In 2010, over 100 off his sketchpads were inscribed by UNESCO into the Local Memory of the World Register. He received national recognition – the Chaconia Medal (Gold) for his contribution to art.