Welcome to the New Adventures of…

Body Gras!

On the Cutting Edge of the Canadian Body Painting Scene


What’s Body Gras! you ask? Well…you’re about to be enlightened.

Body Gras! is all about embellishing the beauty and mystery of the human form in a provocative, competitive and we've got to admit, a titillating environment using paints, props, music, and above all imagination.

Through the pigment of the artist’s imagination, nakedness becomes magically clothed. We’re seeing nude models, but we’re seeing them through a veil of creativity. They soon cease to become nudes as they become clothed in painted themes - a comic book hero, a panther, exotic bird, snake, skeleton, warrior, vegetable matter, mermaid, even a jigsaw puzzle.

At it’s most complex, body painting is an exciting, three-dimensional, living, breathing form of art - crafted in this day and age with FDA approved body paint and a limitless imagination. At it’s best, the specter that is Body Gras! is becoming neveu entertainment to an incredibly diverse audience.

Global Hip Factor

Body painting is a burgeoning art form, in case you haven’t noticed. Like tattooing and other forms of body art, it’s fast becoming an internationally recognized and respected form of art. It regularly appears in the media and is widely used by the advertising industry for campaigns requiring a unique hook. Music videos have long made use of this bold and daring technique.

Body painting extravaganzas like Body Gras!, which are designed for broad public enjoyment, have a way of electrifying the senses like nothing you’ve ever seen.

In Europe, the U.S. and South America, body art festivals draw huge crowds. Audiences are a mix of pros and wannabes from fashion, esthetics, film and the fine arts to fans, family and frivolous partiers – but rest assured, it’s jaw-dropping potential is just too hard to resist for life’s more adventurous spectators.

Who’s Behind this Seemingly Genius Idea?

The man at the helm of Body Gras! is Jeff King, Vancouver Island’s premier wildlife mural artist, airbrush aficionado and artistic visionary. Helping mold Body Gras! into what it is today is Jeff’s friend, colleague and resident photographer Mark Corbett.

On show night, King’s entourage is a true circus. Fire-dancers, drummers, candelabra-wearing belly dancers, comedians, techies and groupies -- they put on an ‘entertainment package’ for the crowd while competitors are busy backstage. When the artists have applied all the finishing touches, it's up to the model to deliver an unprecedented performance good enough to take home the prize money and coveted trophy.

Jeff began thinking big after he won the West Coast Bodypainting Championship in Vancouver in 2000. After his experiences there, he wanted to expose the masses to an more innovative and racy form of entertainment that was guaranteed to grab a crowd’s attention. Body Gras! is his dream come true.

Who Competes?

The body painting artists that compete come from all walks of life and artistic disciplines. Both men and women compete as artists and models. They may quietly demonstrate their artistic talents, or more likely, they’ll express themselves in completely outrageous ways. Either way, they will be using the human form, paint, music, dance, and unbridled energy to make their statement.

Body Gras! pits teams against each other to compete for a cash prize and the right to advance up the Body Gras! ladder of top talent.

When it's on the road, Body Gras! teams are drawn from the host communities. On show night, three-person creative teams (artist, model, and stylist) race to create the best illusion in three-and-a-half-hours. Models finally ‘perform’ their theme to musical accompaniment in front of celebrity judges and boisterous, adoring crowds. At the end of the season, 10 regional champions will come together to fight it out in the Body Gras! Grand Finale.


How Did We Get Here?

Body Gras!, a production of Canadian Body Painting Festival.com, was set in motion in the summer of 2002 when its founders convinced nearly 20 artists, and just as many models and stylists, to compete in a new body painting competition staged in Nanaimo, B.C. – a tough, yet artsy former coal town graced with one of the most amazing harbours on the entire West Coast of North America.

During the debut competition, nearly a thousand people over the span of three nights took in the spectacle! Three evenings filled with rousing, often boisterous entertainment, artistic fineness - and certainly the most provocative feature of this extravaganza - body painting teams competing for more than $1,000 in prize money and the chance to be in the well-covered spotlight.

In the spring of 2003, Body Gras! became a two-city affair when it took over Legends Nightclub, one of Victoria's premiere venues, for a total of four major shows. Then it was back to Nanaimo to give the city another dose of homegrown talent. In 2005, we were off to produce a show in Vancouver - our neighbour across the pond and home of the 2010 Winter Olympics. We are now a three-city gig and we vow to continue to work our hardest to bring a Body Gras! event to a venue near you.

Body Gras! has now performed in three cities. It's a growing phenomena with the potential to grow beyond our own borders. Our ultimate goal is to invite competitors from all over the planet to join us for international Body Gras! contests in many of the world's most exotic and exciting locations, including our beautiful home, Vancouver Island, British Columbia.

What’s the big picture you ask?

To date, Body Gras! has produced 11 major body painting contests on Canada’s West Coast, but more importantly, literally thousands of people have now experienced the thrill of live body painting shows in dozens of communities. A great deal of the credit goes to Jeff and his hard working, highly flexible and talented team that have stuck by him through all his outlandish, visionary antics.

With that said, the team wants to take Body Gras! to the small screen where millions of people can join in the fun! It’s called…


The Body Gras! Team

Nanaimo, BC