Tigua Painting

Painted for an exhibition of Tigua paintings at MOA in 1998.

Tigua painting of peasant life. The canvas is formed by a piece of skin stretched and nailed over a wooden frame. The sky serves as the background for the painting; it is painted in gradient from dark blue to grey pink with white striations. There are fluffy white clouds, black and white birds and a yellow and orange sun in the sky. A large, dark blue, snow-capped mountain is set against the horizon. In front of the mountain there are various green rolling hills. Three of the hills are divided into geometric shapes by fields in various colours. Small green plants with red, white, pink and yellow flowers are scattered throughout the landscape. There are also tall plants with thin curvy stalks that have light green leaves. Nestled between two hills, near the centre of the painting, there is a grey stone walled house with a brown thatched roof. Three people are on a patch of dirt in front of the house. On the left, there is a seated man wearing a white wide-brimmed hat, red shawl, orange shirt and blue pants. He holds a blue mug and a wooden spoon in his hands. There is a woman sitting right of the man, and she is wearing a white wide-brimmed hat, pink shawl, black skirt and a long braid down her back that is wrapped in yellow fabric. The woman holds a spool with white thread in her hands. Further right, there is another woman walking towards the seated pair. She has a hunched posture and supports herself with a wooden cane. The woman wears a white wide-brimmed hat, a purple shawl, a black skirt and a long braid down her back that is wrapped in yellow fabric. There is a tall hill looming over the stone house on the left side of the image. A woman tends her sheep on top of the hill. She wears a pink shawl, white wide-brimmed hat, black skirt with white fringe and a braid down her back that is wrapped in white fabric. The woman holds a stick upraised in her left hand. Down the slope from her, there are six white sheep. A brown path curves across the painting from the right side to the bottom left corner. Near the right side of the path, there is a white dog. Several paces in front of the dog there is a woman in a pink shawl walking toward the left side of the painting. She has a white satchel tied around her shoulders. There is a brown and white alpaca in front of the woman. A man is walking in front of the alpaca. He wears a white wide-brimmed hat, red shawl, purple shirt and blue pants and he carries a wooden walking stick. In the lower left corner of the painting, trees with thin black trunks grow on the path in front of the man. The trees have leaves like those of palm trees. In the lower right corner of the painting, the artist’s name and the year are written in white paint. There is a piece of white card affixed to the back of the frame that has writing in pen and felt on it. The writing tells the artist’s community, the title and the size of the work.