Bobby Matharu has spent a lot of his life observing nature – from the sky, the land, the sea. As an enjoyer of adventure sports like paragliding, motorbiking and climbing, he is fully in touch with nature’s splendour.
“You sometimes think, wow, how beautiful the world is, if I could only share these emotions with other people,” he says. “Painting lets you put these emotions on a canvas.”
His latest exhibition ‘Between Earth and Sky’, channels the joy and wonder he feels in the outdoors into oil paintings – vividly rendered coastline vistas and gardens which speak to the expansive and lively atmosphere of these places.
Held at the Creative Asia Art Centre in Docklands, ‘Between Earth and Sky’ showcases Matharu’s works of the last six years, with a portion of profits going to the Leukemia Foundation, a cause close to his heart as an oncology pharmacist of 16 years. Matharu has had no formal training but has been painting since he was in school, with his last exhibition taking place in India.
Painting is a meditative practice for him, something he describes as ‘deeply fulfilling’.
“Paintings take me somewhere else; I can travel to different places. It’s that experience of being in a dreamy stage where you can blend reality and dream in one,” he reflects.
Like with his adventure sports, the doing is more important than the ruminating, Matharu dabbing colour quickly and intuitively to reflect the verve of each place he paints.
His favourite piece, ‘Aqua Light at Geelong Jetty’ exemplifies this approach, white and light blue ripple drawing the eye to the end of the pier.
“I don’t like to go into too much detail; because then the more time you spend on a painting, the more cautious you look – I want to look confident when I paint and not like someone who’s scared to put the brush of the paint on the canvas,” he says.
Particularly striking is Bobby Matharu’s use of vibrant colours, inspired by the impressionist style (think Monet, Renoir), adding an expressive layer to the landscape. It’s a passion he shares with his close friend, poet Satinder Sartaaj.
“It you ever happen to go to [Satinder Sartaaj’s] place, he’s got very colourful walls. During university times, he used to call me ‘rangrez’ because I used to play with colours in a different way,” he says.
Sartaaj was someone Matharu found a likeminded artistic spirit in over twenty years ago, where they used to listen to Sufi music together. Naturally, he was the first choice to inaugurate Matharu’s exhibition.
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BOBBY MATHARU
“He is such a good guy, who always remembers old friends. I thought it might be a big ask, but he was like ‘don’t worry. I’ll come’,” says Matharu of asking Sartaaj to the exhibition during his Australian tour.
Both Sartaaj and Matharu enjoy the spiritual stillness of being in nature and connecting to something bigger.
“When you’re in nature, you feel relaxed, you connect with this power. That’s like my way of praying; being in that stage where you are part of the earth, you’re part of the universe,” Matharu says.
Just as Satinder Sartaaj writes poetry using words, Bobby Matharu aims to paint nature’s poetry – the intangible way we are in ‘quiet dialogue’ with ‘land, sea, and spirit’.
“I’m trying to capture something between the physical and spiritual – that stage where your mind elevates and you feel like you’re meditating,” he says.
Having received many sales, commissions and positive response from his exhibition, Matharu looks forward to getting back into the studio.
“It’s like I’m time traveling. I can’t explain it in words, but the painting automatically happens – I’m not thinking about what to do, I get the colours ready and then the painting slowly starts coming alive,” Matharu says.
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