Plein Air Art Podcast · PleinAir Magazine

Guido Frick on the Rules to Follow for Great Paintings

·1 hr 8 min·4 clips

Guido Frick says there is no shortcut in painting: “exercise, exercise, exercise.”

1. Plein Air Art Podcast episode 248 features Guido Frick and focuses on his approach to outdoor painting. 2. Eric Rhodes hosts the show as publisher and founder of Plein Air Magazine, and Guido Frick matters because he studied with Sergei Bongard. 3. The episode asks what rules lead to strong plein air paintings and why Frick still hears Bongard’s voice while he paints. 4. Frick describes growing up in Germany near the Swiss border and studying at a small academy in his hometown. 5. He says his first teacher was a professor from Czechoslovakia who was a “fantastic colorist.” 6. Frick argues that artists from Eastern Europe often have an unusually strong sense of color, including painters from Russia, Ukraine, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, and Beluchistan. 7. He tells the story of a professor who brought a woman into class, then shifted attention toward her and stopped teaching the group properly. 8. Frick says he later saw her show in a neighboring city and believed 90 percent of the paintings were done by the professor, including the signature. 9. After he repeated that criticism, he says the professor confronted him in a Swiss potato field and fired him from school. 10. Frick then found a Sergei Bongard illustration in a magazine and traveled to the United States to study with him. 11. He says Bongard taught workshops in Idaho and had a small academy in Santa Monica. 12. Frick recalls being nervous at a farewell dinner in Idaho Falls because his English was poor and he worried about understanding Bongard. 13. He tells how his steak jumped off the plate during that dinner and Bongard told him not to worry and to get another one. 14. Frick says Bongard’s teaching can be reduced to rules for color, temperature, and value. 15. He explains that painters should compare red with red, blue with blue, green with green, and yellow with yellow before taking a brush in hand. 16. He says squinting helps judge whether shapes are lighter or darker, and that this analysis creates a mental roadmap before the first stroke. 17. Frick says Bongard taught him to block in the painting fast, beat the moving sun, and secure the main information in the first 20 to 30 minutes. 18. He describes a process of toning the canvas with damar varnish, laying in a thin abstract first pass, then modeling forms, then finishing with accents and highlights. 19. The episode sounds conversational and instructional, with Eric Rhodes pushing for specifics while Frick answers with stories, examples, and direct methods. 20. Painters who want a practical plein air workflow and teachers who stress disciplined observation will likely get the most from this episode. 21. Painters looking for abstract theory without step-by-step process may skip it.

Listen to the show on

Apple Podcasts Spotify

Play clips from this episode More from Plein Air Art Podcast