Mothers still inspiring their girls

REMEMBERING MUM: Leanne Taylor, left, and Linda Tilyard, whose Martinborough exhibition A Tangible Presence is inspired by their mothers, who died last year.

Every artist needs a muse -- and for Wairarapa artists Linda Tilyard and Leanne Taylor, it's Mum.

The women, both tutors at King Street Artworks, launched their joint exhibition, A Tangible Presence, at Martinborough's Backspace Gallery last week.

The artists say the exhibition, consisting of paintings, ceramic works and fabric crafts, is a homage to women's stature in social and domestic life -- and is also a tribute to their mothers, who both died last year.

Though A Tangible Presence wasn't intended solely as a memorial, each of their works -- whether it be pottery inscribed with housie numbers, paintings with a recurring motif of fabric or favourite flowers, 60s-style mannequin heads, or a spiritual symbol created from baking tins -- is a nod to their mothers' memory.

"The pieces are all elements of their lives and our upbringing, but hopefully each work stands alone, and can be appreciated in its own right," Tilyard said.

"There is a sadness there, but there's also celebration -- we wanted to celebrate women's work and those feminine skills our mums passed on."

Tilyard's mother, Cynthia, was born in South-East England and arrived in New Zealand with her young family in 1972 -- and went on to farm in Darfield, South Canterbury.

"Mum was brave -- she came here and set up and whole new life, and never went back to the country of her birth.

"She was a woman of the land, one of those salt of the earth people who just got on with it."

Tilyard's work features recurring motifs representing her mother -- farmland, her favourite orchids, the sea (symbolising migration), linen, and sculpted heads "with long necks, like wigstands", representing 60s fashions.

She also features common Christian funerary icons to symbolise "loss and longing".

"I'm not religious -- but it's funny the images that help us cope when we're grieving."

Taylor's work references her mother Nona's passion for housie -- featuring numerical sequences and the mustard yellow of her mum's card deck.

"Housie was her social time," Taylor said.

"She would tap her walking stick on the ground, and would say she was counting her numbers."

One painting features number sequences "falling off the side of the canvas", symbolising her struggle with bipolar disorder.

But she also references Nona's domestic and creative influence -- such as a mandala made from clay madeleine tins, an embroidered cherry blossom and ceramic spools of cotton.

Tilyard said working on her pieces was "cathartic and emotional" -- but creating art in her mother's memory has helped the grieving process.

"I look around I feel as though some of Mum's energy of still here -- that she is a tangible presence.

"Hopefully, our work captures the beauty of [lives] well lived."

A Tangible Presence will run at Backspace Gallery, 8 Kitchener St, Martinborough, until Sunday September 27.