Fun
Frisky
Nostalgic
Intense
Adventurous
Choked Up
Curious
Romantic
Weird
Bob Ross is the popular king of slow television. The public television legend won his way into our hearts with his calm manner, squirrel friends, and happy trees. However, he has a new rival in the “public broadcasting art show department.” Your Brush With Nature (now streaming on Netflix) takes viewers into the merry world of plein air painting (i.e. Bob Ross-style oil painting, but in the great outdoors). Our guide through this fresh air wonderland? A man named Heiner Hertling.
Hertling is a German-born artist who moved to the United States to pursue a design career. He spent a short time in New York City before moving to Detroit — which is where he hosts Your Brush With Nature.
To put it simply: This show is splendid. Each episode follows Hertling in the wilds of suburban/industrial Detroit. He sets up his easel and picks a part of the landscape to paint in real time. Yeah, you know how Bob Ross did everything in a black void of a studio? Heiner Hertling is better than that! He goes out into nature! (Nature occasionally meaning an abandoned industrial lot by the side of the Michigan highway.)
Hertling narrates every episode in his own humorous, self-depricating, Teutonic-accented way. Yes, he has a smidgen of Werner Herzog’s German zen energy, but he never goes completely off the rails. In fact, he peppers each episode with helpful tips and encouraging words. Your Brush With Nature is an utterly soothing and rather inspiring addition to the Netflix streaming library.
