Sardar Surjit Singh Barnala is a self-taught artist.  From his childhood he was fond of drawing.  During his higher studies at Lucknow, unable to purchase colours, he tried panting black and white portraits with soot collected from mustard oil lamp.  He painted portraits of Gandhi, Nehru, Tagore and many others in this medium.  while painting his father's portrait he used tooth paste to draw the fleck of grey hair in his beard in 1944.  That painting looks as fresh as when it was painted even now.

During emergency when he was in jail for a long time, partly in solitary confinement, he took advantage of the available time and prepared 12 canvases all in oil colours.  Of them 'Hoogly at Sunset' 'Kashmir Damsel' and 'Golden Temple' are still with him.  Later during 1984 when he was placed in solitary confinement for nine months at Panchamarhi, after Blue Star operation, he painted a dozen landscapes and portraits.

As Governor of Uttaranchal he was engrossed by the beauty of nature in Mid Himalayas and he made several paintings.  Trisul, shivling and Nainital Lake were some of the paintings conceived there.  While he was at Hyderabad he made about a dozen paintings.  In Chennai also he has painted several natural scenes.

The first painting exhibition of the Governor was held at Punjab University, Patiala in 1997.  The second exhibition was organised at Hyderabad in 2004 for charity and seven of his paintings were sold for rupees four lakhs which was donated for the housing of homeless Sikligars at Hyderabad and other charities.  The third and fourth painting exhibitions were held at Lalit Kala Akademi, Chennai on October 12th, 2005 and at Aurodan Art Galleries, Pondicherry on 30th October 2005 respectively for charity  From out of the sale proceeds Rs.1.00 lakh has been donated towards the Prime Minister's Calamity Relief Fund for the relief and rehabilitation works of Kashmir earthquake victims.

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