Join our next BoldBrush LIVE! Webinar by signing up here:
register.boldbrush.com/live-guest

Learn the magic of marketing  with us here at BoldBrush!
boldbrushshow.com

Get over 50% off your first year on your artist website with FASO:
FASO.com/podcast

---

For today's episode, we sat down with realist oil painter and former radiologist Carl Bretzky, who shares his journey from growing up interested in art and photography, through a medical career in interventional radiology, to becoming a full-time artist in 2016. He explains how studying with Joe Paquet and participating in plein air events around the country shaped his love for landscape, urban scenes, and especially nocturnes, which he believes are often easier and faster to paint than daytime scenes due to their homogeneous darks and clear value transitions. Carl discusses his use of the rule of thirds and his approach to composition, often reimagining scenes—like his piece Hotel Laguna Nocturne—in the studio to adjust skies, colors, and clouds for stronger visual impact. Carl also tells us about his use of the prismatic palette, rooted in the teachings of Frank Vincent DuMond, and how understanding prismatic color shifts and subtle gradations helps create convincing light, atmosphere, and distance. Finally, Carl offers advice on building an art career through instruction, plein air competitions, galleries, networking, and social media, emphasizing saying yes to opportunities, maintaining an active studio practice, and cultivating community with other artists.

Carl's FASO site:

carlbretzke.com

Carl's Social Media:

instagram.com/carlbretzkeart

facebook.com/carl.bretzke.3

Carl's Videos:

Instructional Videos