Tina ma Tama

Motherhood is an enduring subject matter that recurs throughout the practice of the late artist Lily Aitui Laita. Tinā ma Tama translates as mother and child in Gagana Sāmoa (Sāmoan Language). The work is an early example of her explorations of motherhood and her developing painterly language. She returned

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to the notion of motherhood through a number of ‘Tinā ma Tama’ paintings, each depicting mother and child.

Here, Laita works energetically, using her hands to reinterpret the icon of mother and child. Gestrual brushstrokes in bright hues of yellow and red are layered to create movement and texture. Black oil stick is used to contour and offers loose figurative forms that represent a female holding a child. Laita worked intuitively, often painting at night without a fixed outcome. Figures and language would often reveal themselves as part of this process and emanate from the ‘darkness’ of the surface.

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