Dancing with the brush

Still photo from Jonas Gerard – Asheville Painter, by BlindLyleFilms

Ever feel like you need to loosen up in your painting? Wish you could get out of your mind and just paint? Just dance with the brush?

Watch painter Jonas Gerard on YouTube. Seeing his painting process is inspirational – and it makes you want to get up, grab a brush, turn on your favorite music, and paint away.

"You learn to trust – and that everything happens for a reason," he says, in the video Jonas Gerard – Asheville Painter. "Give up results – give up planning — give up worry – and, a big one — a big, big one — give up fear."

He demonstrates on large canvases, dancing to the music, dashing with lines, slapping on paint, carving rhythmic shapes out of the paint, brushing in large areas, all quickly, all spontaneously, all with large house painting brushes, trowels, rags, whatever he has to hand....

"Painting fast gives you – gives the opportunity for the mind to be quiet. ... It shuts off... it goes on, 'All right – let him do his thing.'"

Jonas Gerard Live Painting shows, in time lapse, the creation of two very large paintings, one a museum-sized triptych, followed by a series of still photographs of some of his large paintings. There are also more videos of Gerard painting and being interviewed, which can be found by searching for "Jonas Gerard" at www.YouTube.com.