42 Artists Magazine December 2019
“I was brought up in a small town,”
says the artist. “It’s what I know, what
I react to; it’s my familiar environ-
ment. Writers write what they know;
painters paint what they know. If
I were to paint Beverly Hills, it
wouldn’t have the same connection,
because it’s not coming from inside.”Embracing the Square
Frederick is a meticulous and thought-
ful practitioner at every stage of
constructing a painting. “I’ve always
been fine with making a lot of effort
for a later result,” he says. He begins
the process by collecting images,usually by photographing scenes he
comes across while driving around in
his truck. “I know it when I see it,” he
says. “The two best moments of being
a painter are the moment of inspira-
tion and the moment of seeing the
finished painting on the wall in the
gallery. All of the other moments are
just hard work.”
After selecting a subject and photo-
graphing it from various viewpoints
and exposures, Frederick will make
sketches followed by a small painting.
This allows him to finalize the compo-
sition and work out the color and tonal
balance. “I learned as a young painterthat you don’t just jump into a big
canvas,” he says, “because you can get
bogged down. If you have to make
changes, then you have to repaint a lot
of square footage. With a small sketch,
I can make changes quickly, turn on a
dime and generally work it out. I don’t
have to be quite as exacting, and I can
feel the mood of the piece.”
Frederick generally paints composi-
tions in a square format with his
principal subject centered, which pro-
vides a front-on view that’s strikingly
contemporary. This approach also
allows for intriguing spatial moves on
either side of the subject, encouraging