Eviction: Mother and Child 1992

George Pemba painted ‘Eviction: Mother and Child’ with oils on canvas, building up the image from a base of peach, lilac, and sage. The painting is built up from successive strokes and glazes. I can imagine Pemba in the studio carefully building up the colour, with the canvas propped up on an easel and the smell of turpentine thick in the air. The muted tones are so evocative. I can imagine the sun beating down, the dust, the heat, as the scene unfolds. In the foreground is a seated woman cradling a baby, a bundle of belongings around her. The baby is a pale and still presence in the painting, which perhaps suggests vulnerability. The mother looks towards the skyline and the pastel-tinged clouds. Her expression is stoic and fixed on the horizon. There is a directness to Pemba's painting, with the loose brushstrokes and bold colours. The rawness reminds me of artists such as Paula Modersohn-Becker, another artist interested in the everyday life of women. Across time artists are drawn to certain subjects, but find their own unique way of communicating feeling, and their own truth.