“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 unreliable. The fact that it 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 plain air, is not to chase dull accuracy in depiction but is an attempt to snare a volatile moment and trap some of that risky transience that simultaneously shapes and disrupts our seeing.

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