The Sikh world and the world of art mourn the pass­ing of Jar­nail Singh, a vi­sion­ary artist who im­mor­talised Pun­jabi her­itage on can­vas. His works, show­cased in ex­hi­bi­tions like Dis­cov­er­ing the Soul of Pun­jab and The Story of Sikhism mural se­ries, pre­serve the for­got­ten tra­di­tions of our an­ces­tors. A hum­ble mae­stro, his legacy lives on in every brush­stroke—an en­dur­ing trib­ute to the land and peo­ple he so pas­sion­ately por­trayed. Gurleen Kaur, a bud­ding artist and arts his­tory stu­dent at the Uni­ver­sity of Al­berta and as­so­ci­ate of The World Sikh News pays a heart­felt trib­ute to the de­parted soul.

The art world dims with the pass­ing of Jar­nail Singh, a hum­ble artist who painted the soul of Pun­jab onto can­vas. In­tro­duced to him by WSN ed­i­tor Jag­mo­han Singh, I had the priv­i­lege of meet­ing Jar­nail Singh at his Sur­rey stu­dio four years ago.

His hu­mil­ity was as strik­ing as his mas­ter­pieces. De­spite global ac­claim, with ex­hi­bi­tions like “Jar­nail Singh – Dis­cov­er­ing the Soul of Pun­jab” at Sur­rey Art Gallery in 2004 and the “Story of Sikhism” mural se­ries at Singh Sabha Gur­d­wara in Sur­rey, he re­mained pro­foundly grounded.

Fol­low­ing in the foot­steps of his leg­endary fa­ther, Kir­pal Singh, who too was an ac­claimed artist,  he, too, brought Pun­jabi his­tory, cul­ture, and ethos to life on can­vas, pre­serv­ing the re­gion’s rich her­itage through his art.

His works, show­cased in venues such as the Har­ri­son Arts Fes­ti­val and the Reach Gallery and Mu­seum in Ab­bots­ford, stand as tes­ta­ments to his ded­i­ca­tion to pre­serv­ing Pun­jabi cul­ture. Through his art, he im­mor­tal­ized our her­itage, en­sur­ing that the tales of our an­ces­tors res­onate with fu­ture gen­er­a­tions.

 

As you can see in his in­ter­ac­tion with me in the video, he was so po­lite and gen­tle. He humbly told me, and those words echo in my mind: “I wanted to tell the sto­ries of peo­ple through my paint­ings, the pic­tures they can re­late to.”

Jar­nail Singh did not con­fine his artis­tic jour­ney to Pun­jab; he painted ex­ten­sively in Canada, mak­ing Van­cou­ver his sec­ond home, though he ul­ti­mately passed away in Chandi­garh. Among his most epic works is a two-part mural at Gur­d­wara Singh Sabha in Sur­rey, BC, Canada, de­pict­ing sem­i­nal mo­ments from the era of the ten Sikh Gu­rus, a tes­ta­ment to his deep con­nec­tion with Sikh her­itage across con­ti­nents.

Ac­claimed au­thor and nov­el­ist Sim­rita Dhir of the Uni­ver­sity of Cal­i­for­nia, in her trib­ute, so beau­ti­fully paints the life of Jar­nail Singh, say­ing, “Some of my fa­vorite Jar­nail Singh paint­ings pre­sent Pun­jabi women dressed in tra­di­tional at­tire, stand­ing by the vil­lage well, or em­broi­der­ing phulka­ris; car­ry­ing wa­ter in cop­per ves­sels; pick­ing cot­ton in fields; danc­ing at fes­ti­vals like Vai­saikhi, or sim­ply gaz­ing out­ward in an­tic­i­pa­tion of some­thing or some­one. I can never have my fill of ad­mir­ing his paint­ings, so lay­ered with mean­ing and life as they are, telling riv­et­ing rural Pun­jabi tales with ex­tra­or­di­nary sen­si­tiv­ity. Through his work, he in­stilled in every Pun­jabi a deep sense of pride, pur­pose, and be­long­ing. The news of his death to­day is un­nerv­ing.”

Jar­nail Singh prophet­i­cally said, “Paint­ing for me is a process of in­fi­nite hap­pi­ness and joy. It is im­pos­si­ble to de­scribe and de­fine this process. There is a mix­ture of feel­ings, imag­i­na­tion, craft, and many more el­e­ments that can­not be de­fined nor ex­plained. Paint­ing for me is med­i­ta­tion. Paint­ing for me is prayer.”

For more than three decades,  Jar­nail Singh poured his soul into his art, bring­ing Sikh his­tory and Pun­jabi tra­di­tions to life with every brush­stroke.  Sig­nif­i­cantly, he was ad­mired by left­ists, so­cial­ists and Sikh re­li­gious fol­low­ers. He had be­friended many an artist from the world of art in Canada and par­tic­i­pated in joint ven­tures, dis­cus­sions and the fu­ture of art in the cur­rent fast paced worldly life.

In­spired by him, I ven­tured to re­paint one of his fa­mous works, though, sadly, I did not get the op­por­tu­nity to show him. I re­gret that I could not meet him again.  I even at­tempted to copy a paint­ing of a Pun­jabi lady by his wife Baljit Kaur.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Though he is no longer with us, his art re­mains—bridg­ing gen­er­a­tions, cross­ing bor­ders, and open­ing con­ver­sa­tions that re­mind us of our shared his­tory and hu­man­ity. May his legacy con­tinue to in­spire, unite, and keep our roots alive, wher­ever we are in the world.

Jar­nail Singh’s legacy is not just in the art he cre­ated but in the cul­tural ta­pes­try he en­riched. He will be deeply missed by the Sikh com­mu­nity and all who cher­ish art.