Albert Huie claims he was born to be an artist, painting from as far back as he can remember. His mother and grandmother who raised him worried about his strange reserved personality and the fact that he spent so much time observing nature or questioning his station in life. Brought up in a strong matriarchal and conservative setting that emphasized discipline and religion, Huie was not encouraged to ponder on the fact that his father, then living in Cuba, had named him Alphonso after the then Cuban president, in fact his grandmother insisted that he be called by his third name – Albert - after Prince Albert, husband of Queen Victoria. Despite Huie’s earliest scratches on the pantry wall at home, it was not until his teens, that he would find and environment that would stimulate his social awareness and creative abilities.
In 1934, Huie visited Kingston for the first time. Still a youth, he took a keen interest in the pending general election; the political discussions at his cousin’s tailoring establishment on Tower St, the Sunday meetings at Parade held by St William Grant as well as the Christmas morning concert. In fact it was the concert that inspired his first real painting of people in their fineries entitled The Dance.
In 1936, Huie returned to Kingston to work. He lived by his hands, decorating glass and chinaware with enamel designs. This enabled him to buy his own paints and pursue his own art in earnest. In 1937, Huie met H.D. Molesworth, then Secretary Librarian of the Institute of Jamaica who still new to his appointment was energized by Jamaica and keen to encourage local talent. Molesworth was the first person to give value to Huie’s work, assisting him his first sale, Molesworth also introduced Huie to Edna Manley and it was under her aegis that he became involved in the free Saturday morning art classes held at the Institute’s Junior Centre. There, Huie joined a young band of artists - expatriates and locals - exchanging skills and ideas, unified by nationalist concerns. This growing sense of Jamaican identity was made manifest in the period by the conscious depiction of the black Jamaicans, genre scenes and renewed interest in the Jamaican landscape.
Huie’s passion for the depiction of Jamaica has remained consistent over the years, and if there has been any criticism of his work, it is that it has remained within this same conservative vein. His style of painting has also changed little, After winning a British Council scholarship in 1947 to study in London, he adopted impressionist techniques of capturing Caribbean light and form that have become distinctive. Yet, French impressionism is just a vehicle for Huie – his concerns are wholly Jamaican and his paintings emphatically reflect this. In his late eighties, Huie continues to paint and exhibit both locally and internationally and has been the subject of a recent monograph by the famed art historian Edward Lucie-Smith. He lives in Canada but continues to visit Jamaica regularly.
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