Gert Johan Manschot lives in a modern barn aptly named the Dutch Barn in Dripping Springs, TX with six rescue dogs, two donkeys, a cat, and three beehives. Johan's career journey started in the Netherlands as a lawyer first and subsequently in project management. Throughout his life, he found joy in art: paintings, sculptures, and art collecting. After moving to Texas a little more than 10 years ago for love and marriage, he began drawing and painting himself. Initially, taking nude drawing lessons in Dallas, joining a painter studio there as well, and attending Texas Women’s University for a Masters in Painting. His art is heavily influenced by meditation having spent a significant amount of time in a Zen Buddhist monastery and at various retreats. His painting is predominantly abstract in form, mainly in black and white, using acrylic paint on canvas, wood, or paper, and most large in format. In the past year, he has been experimenting with color again, mixing color in with black and white. Johan expresses himself with one or a few large and fast brush strokes, a combination of motion and emotion. The strokes capture the energy that he experiences in the very moment of painting. They are invocative and challenge the viewer to question where the energy comes from and what it expresses. His paintings often have a Zen quality and expressiveness, minimal and direct. The Ensō, aka Zen circle, is becoming more and more of a central expression and integral part of his work. His figurative art, female figures in the nude, reflects and expresses the model’s energy, movement, curvature, lines, and elegance, using charcoal, graphite, or chalk on paper. As with his abstract paintings, the execution is fast with minimal lines capturing the essence of femininity.
