Today we’d like to introduce you to Gary Frisk.
Hi Gary, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
Signature Member – Outdoor Painters Society
My goal is making the mundane beautiful.
I am an award winning artist and my art hangs in corporate offices and in a fine art museum.
I always knew I could draw. I started learning about art at an early age when visiting my grandmother, I would look in her art books and sit at her easel. She oil painted like a master and I loved her work. As one of life’s ironies, I never took any lessons from her. I pursued a degree in engineering; however somewhere in my God given DNA, there was something that pressed me towards practicing art. My high school and college notebooks are decorated with drawings and sketches of all types of subject matter.
My oil painting journey began in the fall of 2005, when I took my first art class, Beginning Oil Painting, at the Glassell School of Art in Houston, Texas, as a way to spend time with my daughter.
It was in those art classes where I realized oil painting is what excited me. When I began the pursuit to becoming an artist, I decided to only create art using this medium.
I discovered plein air painting after being invited by a local gallery to paint at a historical ranch and subsequently began to participate in plein air painting competitions.
I continued to expand my oil painting theory and develop plein air skills by taking workshops from some of the nation’s most recognized professional artists. I still continue to participate in plein air competitions.
I have earned many awards including some Best of Shows and “Museum Purchase Award” at the 2019 EnPleinAirTEXAS event. Recently: “Best Working Waterfront Award” at the 2024 Plein Air Southwest Painting Competition, “Best In Show” at the 2024 Outdoor Painters Society Plein Vision in Miniature Associate Members Exhibition, “Danning Award” at the 2026 Rolling Hills of Round Top Plein Air Festival and “Best Use of Perspective Award” at the 2026 Plein Air Southwest Painting Competition. My plein air painting “Lhoist Limestone Kiln Quatrième” was accepted into the 2025 Oil Painters of America 34th Annual National Juried Exhibition. In 2026, two of my plein air paintings were accepted into National Oil & Acrylic Painters’ Society (NOAPS) Juried Exhibitions: “West Texas Pumpjack Keighley Ilene No. 1” into Best of America Small Works International and “Another Marine Loading” into Best of America International.
My painting style is representational impressionism, a fusion of sorts of the two, sometimes referred to abstract realism; a menagerie of intersecting lines, angles and shapes transformed from 3D reality to a 2D panel; comprising subjects often ignored, rarely noticed.
I once asked an artist, who lived in the Northeast, and whose beautiful wintery scapes I really admired; “I live in Texas, how do I paint like that when I have no reference?” He graciously responded, “Paint what you have where you are.” Great words.
I am a degreed engineer and I earned over 40 years in oil and gas equipment and facilities experience. Along the way, I started my art journey and with my engineering background, I gravitated toward machinery, vehicles, watercraft in water or dry-dock, industrial, architectural and then oil and gas subject matter.
I have made many trips to West Texas and came to appreciate the intrinsic beauty in those areas; the oil and gas scenery and architecture; pumpjacks, old grain elevators and some stunningly beautiful and stark landscapes. People have told me, I make the ugly beautiful.
Painting these inorganic subjects in eerie captivating silence, I imagine the history of the men and women who were inexorably intertwined with them, their stories and their lives; those who worked in the oilfields, docks, ships, factories or mills as laborers, crew-members, salesmen and women; their families, taking children to school, delivering goods, going to church, trips to the movies, grandma’s house, grocery store, beach, county fair; laughter, arguments, first kiss; and finally having to say goodby after many years of service.
I won’t create shock, trash or angry art, it just does not resonate for me. Why spend time creating something to provoke ill feelings?
My hope is, whoever sees my art, their eyes have a peaceful place to rest; perhaps invoking a memory or whisking them away to another place to kindle a deep thought in their heart, lift spirits, evoke a smile.
I continue to keep putting in the mileage; the never ending pursuit of growth and improvement.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Similar to most journeys, it has been a wide range of challenges, successes and disappointments.
In the beginning, it was simply finding time to paint as I was still employed full time and wanting to improve by taking Saturday and evening art classes and workshops. Then, I started competing in shows and plein air competitions. Comparing my art with others in competitions can be both rewarding and humbling. The quantity of art in these competitions is exceptional. While I have won many awards, most often I was humbled. In every case however, I always put in my best.
In the past year, I developed a new struggle. In May, 2025, after a virus I contracted, I began having issues with balance and fatigue. It persists still, however I am persevering through. This year, I have participated in four events, from 4 to 8 days long, where I had to stand for periods of 5 – 8 hours. I am looking forward to participating in future adventures.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I only focus on oil painting, preferably en plein air: representational impressionism, a fusion of sorts of the two, sometimes referred to abstract realism; a menagerie of intersecting lines, angles and shapes transformed from 3D reality to a 2D panel; comprising subjects often ignored, rarely noticed.
My favorite subjects comprise oilfield, watercraft in water or dry-dock, architecture, machinery and old vehicles. In the past few years, I began painting oilfield subjects featuring pumpjacks. I was making excursions to west Texas to just “Paint the Oilfield” and just recently in July, I created “Pumpjack July” where I painted in the studio and posted every day a pumpjack painting.
In terms of your work and the industry, what are some of the changes you are expecting to see over the next five to ten years?
I see a continuation of plein air activities and competitions. There are countless artists who paint outdoors and nearly 100 plein air events around the country. I cannot predict the growth rate, however I do not see any reduction in the movement. And happily, the representational / realism / impressionist painting styles are still strongly in favor; not obsolete or displaced.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.garyfriskart.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/garyfriskart/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/stephengary.frisk
