Lack had long recognized the need for such a publication, so Atelier Lack began publishing the Classical Realism Quarterly . The phrase Classical Realism had been coined by Lack to differentiate his art from the many kinds of realism in vogue in the art world of the day. He contributed numerous essays to the Quarterly including The Venetian Method and The Bistre Method , both drawn from his studies of the old techniques. At the urging of Donald Koestner, he began using a landscape palette based on that of the French and American impressionists. After further research and experimentation he modified this palette and summed up his results in an article entitled The Outdoor Palette.
Lack is one of the finest living portrait painters.
His portraits of Minnesota governors Wendell Anderson and Albert Quie hang in the Minnesota State Capitol. He has also painted a great number of private portrait commissions, but over the years some of his most poignant and charming portraiture has been the personal chronicle he has rendered of his wife and family, beginning with the superb Rubens-like image of his wife, Katherine. Portrait of My Mother is a lovingly rendered depiction of his mother dressed in hat, coat and scarf. He has painted many intimate head studies of his children at various ages including Michael , a portrait of his son. In the fall of 1989 Lack received a phone call from London, England.