Tabitha wa Thuku at home reveals her true colors

She is an artist, a farmer, and according to the late Ruth Schaffner of Gallery Watatu, a ‘Picasso of Kenyan art”!

Tabitha wa Thuku is also a well-travelled, warm-hearted teacher and mother of Wanjiku who lives in a place that she tells BDLife is her ‘palace’, tucked away deep in the hidden heart of Westlands.

It’s a place where she not only paints and stores all of her art, that is, when it is not on exhibition either locally or abroad. She also has sufficient space to have a few goats, chickens, rabbits and one faithful furry dog.

“I wanted to create a village-like feeling here since that is how I grew up,” she tells BDLife after we manage to find her gate just a few meters off Waiyaki Way.

Asked if she owns it or is a renter, Tabitha says neither one. “It was given to me by a client who likes me and my art,” she adds, noting that the generous gift of an old colonial home is not for all time.

“I’m hoping to one day build my own home, but for now, I’m very grateful,” says the charmed artist as she keeps the land-owner’s identity a mystery.

At 58, Tabitha is one of the first Kenyan women to take up fine art professionally. She’s also among the first women to reach the Polytechnic in the 1980s where she studied clothing and textile design.

She’s also among the first women to attend BIFA, one of Kenya’s few fine art colleges. And she is also among the first Kenyan women to exhibit her work in Europe and the Far East.

But as illustrious as her background is, Tabitha is considered the youngster in her current group exhibition at Circle Art Gallery. There she is one of a troika of strong East African women artists taking part in A Retrospective of works by herself, Yony Waite, co-founder of Gallery Watatu in 1969, and Theresa Musoke, the prolific Ugandan painter based in Kampala, but who spent many years working, teaching, and exhibiting in Kenya.        

Sharing the space at Circle Art enables one to see a sampling of all three women’s creativity.

But in order to get a clearer perspective on the diversity of Tabitha’s art, BDLife visited her home and studio shortly after the exhibition opened. It was a trip that proved to be revelatory, particularly in relation to her art but also related to the woman herself.

In the past, I had appreciated Tabitha’s semi-abstract approach to painting, a style that’s been described as ‘dreamlike’ and ethereal. But her technique of layering paints often resulted in works that I found so abstract as to be inaccessible and dark.

However, at Circle Art, there were several of her paintings that challenged that previous perspective. They were still semi-abstract, but these works seemed to signal a shift in the artist’s use of color and light.

But it took a trip to her studio to see that color and light have always been central elements in her paintings. In fact, most of the work that she had stashed away at her place were startlingly fresh, colorful, and energizing, like the woman herself.

But besides seeing her art in a new light, what I also found revelatory was Tabitha’s life story.  I had always known her to be industrious and deeply committed to her art. I also knew she had deep roots in the Kenyan countryside.

But I had no idea that she had grown up on a narrow patch of dusty land separating two wattle tree forests. Or that she picked coffee during school breaks to help her family cover the school fees for her and her seven siblings.

Nor did I know that she’d gone to Loreto Limuru Girls Secondary as well as Kenya Polytechnic, and BIFA before she launched her art career which has taken her all over the world.

I had seen Tabitha’s paintings in countless group exhibitions, but hadn’t quite appreciated that her art had featured everywhere from Alliance Francaise, Goethe Institute, Paa ya Paa, RaMoMa and Circle Art to ISK, Kuona Trust, GoDown, Village Market, Banana Hill, One Off, and Priory Galleries. It’s also been exhibited in Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Hong Kong, and Zanzibar.

But above and beyond all her achievements and opportunities, the one thing that has been constant about Tabitha is her devotion, not just her art but to her daughter Wanjiku, Ciku who is nothing less than her most important work of art.