Gregory Williams
Contact: 868 785 7005 (cell)
 Gregory Williams was born on 17 June 1951 in Port of Spain. His mother died
when he was five years old and he and his sister came to live at the house of
his grandmother, where also several other family members resided.
His grandmother was a very strict disciplinarian and did not allow Gregory to
"lime" about with the children in his neighbourhood after school. She
gave him the choice to go either to the zoo, the cinema, the Queen’s Park
Savannah or the National Museum. At the National Museum Gregory visited the
displays of local artists and so was exposed from an early age to art and the
works of artist from Trinidad and Tobago.
At the same time two uncles also inadvertently guided Gregory towards the
path of Art: one was a technicaldraughtsman and he brought home work which
Gregory studied with great interest, the other worked at the Trinidad Guardian
Newspapers and was an avid reader who brought home magazines such as the
Reader's Digest and Life Time Magazine and others which Gregory, a precocious
reader himself, devoured. These magazines also had stories about foreign Art
and Artists, which held a special interest for Gregory, especially the famous
old Masters.
Gregory started to draw cartoons and other pencil drawings at age six and
showed an aptitude for art also in primary school. He and another pupil, Lance
Lezama, were always in some sort of competition with each other, egged on by
other pupils in the school, who compared the art works of the two "early
masters".
After only being in Standard II (Primary School) for a short time, Gregory
was skipped to Standard III and shortly thereafter he came second in class. His
prize was a book by Emily Brontë . When he came home and told his family of this feat, they
were so pleased that they gave him money to buy something nice for himself. With that money Gregory went to Deltex Art Supply shop where he bought a watercolour set.
Gregory was well on his way to become the artist he is today.
Gregory is mostly a self taught
artist and likes to use different mediums for his works, such as pencil,
watercolours, acrylics, oils, pastels and pen and ink. His subjects are also
various: portraits, landscapes, still life paintings and abstract.
Gregory Williams has been associated with the Art Society of Trinidad and
Tobago for many years and more recently has some of his pieces selected to be
blown up and printed on vinyl to decorate several Wall Projects around
Port of Spain. He also had one of his pieces selected to be printed on a wall
of the upcoming Shanghai Expo booth in October 2010.
Gregory’s first major Exhibition was at the National Museum and Art Gallery
in 1981 together with Wayne Assing.
Over the years he has shown in many group exhibitions and one solo exhibition at different
venues throughout the country.
At the beginning of 2010 Gregory had a successful joint exhibition at the
101 Art Gallery with artist Jane Downer.
Untitled
oil pastels on paper
Adam and Eve
mixed media
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Tribal Fusion
mixed media
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Woodbrook 2006
watercolour
12 x 9"
Study
pencil on paper
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