A Finnish artist, Laitila studied at the drawing school of the Finnish Art Society from 1915 to 1918, after which he went to study abroad, first in Dresden in 1919 then at the Académie André Lhote in Paris and 'Academia Espanola de Bellas Artes in Rome in the 1920s. He is a resolutely modern painter under the influence of post-cubism, expressionism and fauvism. His works are exhibited at the Finnish Library Museum and in the collection of the University of Helsinki.