ROBERT MALHERBE – PAINTING

Nothing spoils a good story like the arrival of an eyewitness. 

Mark Twain 

Vision is not a stable proposition. It is restless – even erratic and mostly utterly unreliable. The fact that is not fixed suits Robert Malherbe down to the ground. 

Robert’s approach to what he sees – and it is mostly directly in front of him, either in the studio or plein air, is not to chase the dull accuracy of depiction, rather it is his desire to snare a volatile moment and trap the essence of that vision’s risky transience that simultaneously disrupts and shapes our feelings as much as our seeing. 

Nude, Still Life or Landscape – he seems ecumenical in his chosen subject and it is not because the decision about what to paint is democratic, it is just that each genre provides him with a different compositional architecture and with that a new structure for vision. Whether close scrutiny or a distant view, a soft petal or delicate fold, a flickering reflection or a brooding sky, a cresting wave or the sinewy sweep of a hip for that matter, all give him the happy excuse to take a fully loaded brush on a swift joyous journey.