It is not every day that a nine-year-old boy has their own art exhibition, but Rico Lambert is no ordinary boy — or an ordinary artist.

Diagnosed with autism at the age of 28 months, art has brought him out of his shell and his progress has amazed his parents and teachers.

He recently had a two-day exhibition of his work at the Royal Naval Dockyard where, according to Dad Rupert Lambert, Rico was so happy and excited he was hugging people — a gesture normally unheard of.

“The art is bringing him out of his shell. The art is very therapeutic,” said Mr Lambert. “It started with Play-Doh and crayons, but Rico has moved onto sculpture and pastels.”

Rico has been inspired by characters from the Cartoon Network, Toy Story and Peanuts in particular. “He has made every single character in Toy Story in clay and he does not make a mistake,” said Mr Lambert.

He added: “There was a huge amount of interest from the people in his exhibition at Dockyard and Rico was hugging people. It was fantastic to see.”

Mom, Shirieka Shakir Lambert, said: “Seeing the world through his eyes is a blessing for us indeed. I cannot imagine life without his bright spark. He enhances my life every day and I’m a better person for it.”

Rico began Paget Primary Active Learners programme in 2013 and has been a part of that programme since.

His first teacher was Haidera McIlwain who worked with both Rico and his parents and who realised that his art was extremely important to him. Ms. McIlwain had to leave quite unexpectedly in June 2015 and Freda Trimm became Rico’s new teacher and has been with Rico since September 2015.

Mr Lambert said: “She has reached Rico in ways that we did not know existed and we are blessed to be able to entrust our son with someone we know cares.

“Rico and Ms. Trimm have a very special bond, he often asks to stay over at her house, and she seems to have no problem with it. Rico has continued to enhance his art with Ms. Trimm’s constant assistance, along with her wonder team of Mr. DeShield, Ms. Robinson, Ms Telford, Ms. Dill, and Mr. Simons. Without these kind individuals Rico would not be as well rounded and now outgoing as he is.”

Ms Trimm said that at first, visual arts was Rico’s preferred form of communication. “Rico is very gifted and talented. He creates photorealistic drawings often using only pen or pencils. His attention to detail is inspiring.”

Stephanie Rodill, Marketing and Events Manager at the West End Development Corporation said Ms Trimm had contacted her looking for a place to exhibit Rico’s work during Autism Awareness Month.

“In the past Wedco has supported Tomorrow’s Voices, the autism early intervention centre, by donating 50 per cent of our Christmas Market Fees in 2016, so we were obviously extremely willing to support Autism Awareness Month as well as talented Bermudian youth.

“It did not work out to have his exhibition during the month due to Freda’s busy schedule, but we were happy they were still willing to do the exhibition later.

“Rico is a lovely boy and it was a magic moment to see how excited he was during the exhibition. Rico is an inspiration, achieving so much through adversity — this is only the start of the road for him as his potential is clearly limitless and we hope to see far more from Rico as we support his creative journey.”

• Press release from West End Development Corporation