Gerard was born in County Fermanagh and is one of the most interesting painters in Ireland today, broadleydescribed as an expressionist or modernist painter. Gerard represented Ireland in the international biennial of contemporay art Florence in 2005. His international standing is acknowledged by a personal invitation from the French Painter Claude Pissarro, grandson of French Impressionist painter Camille Pissarro, to participate in the Salon d'Arts de La Rochelle.