Son of the painter, Carleton Wiggins, Guy C. Wiggins was born in Brooklyn, New York, and as a young boy his talent for art was evident. When he was eight years old, for example, New York art critics praised a group of European watercolors produced by the young artist. In New York, he studied art at the National Academy of Design under the tutelage of William Merritt Chase and Robert Henri.

An active member of the New York art community, Wiggins quickly won recognition as a painter. He is reputed as being the youngest American to have had a work in the permanent collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and from early on in his career he was awarded many honors. Perhaps best known for his Impressionist New York snow scenes, Wiggins also drew inspiration from the countryside in the vicinity of Old Lyme, Connecticut, a town he frequented and eventually settled in. Around 1930, Wiggins founded his own art school with classes in New Haven and Lyme. In 1937, when he and his family moved to Essex, Connecticut, he established his art school there.