Matt Sterbenz Fine Art

Progress...

2012-02-23T09:52:00.000-08:00

Progress is coming along on this one. The colors are a little too vibrant for me right now so I will have to dull those down with glazes as soon as this layer is dry.

This session started out with glazing some darker, complimentary colors all over. I was just using thinner and a little bit of stand oil as my medium. The idea was to make the surface slightly tacky before I started putting thicker paint on.

My palette was the same as last time except with the addition of (Old Holland) Flake White and Cadmium Yellow Medium.

Next up on the chopping block

2012-02-21T10:20:00.000-08:00

Last night I got a new painting sketched out. This is from the series of photos I took out by Superstition Mtn and Canyon Lake. This is a new kind of composition for me. There isn't any sky visible here. I'm trying to study more on using light and shadow as part of my composition.

I toned the canvas with some scrap paint a couple days ago, then made a rough line drawing with charcoal. I used some thinner and Burnt Umber to finish the drawing. Then, last night I went in with a wider range on my palette, keeping colors thinned and gradually building up layers.

My palette here is(Old Holland unless noted)
-Warm Grey (Senellier)
-Naples yellow deep
-Yellow Ochre (Rembrandt)
-Cad Yellow Deep
-Cad Red
-Venetian Red (Gamblin)
-Alizarin Crimson (Williamsburg)
-Ultramarine
-Green Earth

I'm avoiding using white in order to avoid that "chalky" look that white can sometimes give. Using Naples Yellow as my lightest color has made the light very warm.

So now I have to wait for this to dry before I can glaze and build up more layers. I think I'm going to start sketching some new paintings until then.

And here's what I'm listening to. Get in the painting mood with some crazy hair and more glam than you can shake a stick at.

Stretching Canvas

2012-02-17T13:51:00.000-08:00

I stretch my own canvases for a couple reasons. It's cheaper, which is great. But generally it is higher quality than the pre-stretched canvases too. I also hate how some store-bought canvases put staples on the side of the canvas. It looks terrible. I can also put as much, or as little, gesso as I want. Anyway, I can be a little obsessive about how my canvases are stretched. I figured I would share my process.

Materials:
-Staple Gun (mine is an Arrow brand, model JT-21M, and JT-21 8mm staples)
-Cotton duct canvas (Fabric stores sell it pretty cheap, tent/awning manufacturers will sometimes give away scraps. If you are looking for a real bargain pick up some canvas "painter's drop cloth". Home Depot sells 12 foot wide ones for about $15. It's not good quality, but it works great for studies and stuff once it is primed. Art stores have the best kind but they will charge you a lot more for it).
-Stretcher bars (I like to get the thicker bars. If the bars are too thin, sometimes the canvas can warp once it is stretched. Thicker bars don't have that problem, and as a bonus you can get away without framing your painting by painting the edges)
-Scissors

Some people like to use some kind of canvas-stretching pliers. I find that I can stretch it tight enough with just my fingers. Any creases left in the canvas will go away once you paint the gesso on (gesso shrinks when it dries). The canvas will be as tight as a drum if you do it right, so I don't really see the need for any extra tools.

Here is a set of stretcher bars. I believe it is Utrecht brand. I decided I wanted to re-stretch the canvas so I removed the old painting and the staples. The stretcher bars are upside down on a piece of canvas, and the canvas was cut so that there is about 3 inches extra all the way around. Try to center the bars as evenly as possible.

Beginning in the middle of one of the sides, I pull the canvas up and staple it down to the back of the bar. I like to fold the edge under itself, because it hides the frayed edges and it looks a lot cleaner.

Staple the center part of the opposite side next. Then the 2 remaining sides.

Now, pulling tight and folding the canvas edge over as I go, I put one staple on either side of the middle one. Then I work from the center of the edge opposite of that. I'll work my way around the canvas putting in two staples at a time on each edge. This helps keep the stretching even, rather than putting a ton of staples in one side before starting the others.

I keep my staples about 1 inch apart. Though it wouldn't hurt to put more in.

Finally we work our way over to the corners. I stop stapling about 3 inches away from each corner, in order to give me enough slack to fold it over.

Don't fold it this way. Some people fold their corners this way and it looks really tacky. If you put a little bit more effort into how you fold your corners it will make a huge difference. Especially if you aren't framing your paintings.

This way of folding takes some time to perfect but it is really worth it. Try to keep everything very tight. Pull the edge down and to the left (1).

Then pull it upwards (2). Try to keep the other edge (on this image's right side) pulled in tight. Sometimes it can get a little loose when doing the second step. Finally fold it down flat onto the back of the stretchers (3). Then staple it down.

The finished corner. Doesn't it look nice?

Then I prime them with maybe 3 coats of gesso followed by a light rub of sandpaper. Make sure to gesso the edges too.

What I'm listening to right now:

A Drive to Canyon Lake

2012-02-15T10:14:00.000-08:00

Last week I drove out to Canyon Lake. Its a winding, mountainous road with lots of hills and potholes as you get closer to the lake. Not very fun to drive and you can't really look at all the great scenery while driving (you don't want to take your eyes off the road for even a second). I stopped at nearly all of the pull-off areas I saw just so I could take lots of pictures. The sun was getting low in the sky, creating lots of good shadows.

I started working on a new painting, referencing some of the photos I took.

I painted a quick 5x7 inch study first, to test the composition, values and colors. I'm trying some new things with my composition and lighting in this painting. One of the things I have sort of neglected in my landscape paintings is using shadow as part of my composition. I had a discussion with a gallery owner in Scottsdale and he gave me a lot of good pointers. Peter, if you are reading this, thanks. That was the kick up the rear I needed!

So here I have the foreground entirely in shadow, and a good portion of the background hills/rocks are in shadow as well.

Next I took a 10x14 inch canvas (I stretch them myself) which had been toned with a mix Burnt Sienna and Cadmium Red. After sketching out the basic composition with thinner, Burnt Umber and Ultramarine Blue, I began applying some thicker paint.

My palette here is (Old Holland oils) Flake White #1, Naples Yellow Deep, Yellow Ochre, Cadmium Yellow Deep, Cadmium Red Medium, Burnt Sienna, Green Earth, Ultramarine Blue. I also used a little bit of Malachite from Daniel Smith. It's a really nice color, sort of like a cool kind of emerald. I figured it would be a nice color for the brittlebushes in the shadowed foreground.

Yesterday I quickly sketched in the foreground. I'm pretty happy so far with the overall colors and values, so over the next few days I will refine shapes and add more detail.

Today I worked some more on the foreground and some minor adjustments everywhere else. I think I'm going to start another painting now and come back to this one next week, with a fresh eye. Maybe I'll do a little bit of glazing.

I almost forgot to post another song too. Some folks like to get away... I think I could use a vacation.

13, 14 (and 10)

2012-01-21T22:38:00.000-08:00

It seems like I forgot to post landscape #10, so here it is

This one was done with a Zorn palette again (50/50 Flake/Titanium White, Yellow Ochre Light, Vermilion, Ivory Black, and a touch of Burnt Sienna). Old Holland brand paints, again.

I like how the water turned out in this one. I enjoyed painting these overcast river/lake landscapes, so expect to see some more.

I tried some new things with the trees in the background. All the leaves have fallen, so we are left with trees made up of only sticks and branches. Difficult to paint without going into a ton of detail. I looked at how some plein air painters tackled the subject before I dove in. After some thinking I mixed a hue that was halfway between the sky color and the branch color, and painted broad strokes for the majority of the branches. Then I went in with a liner brush, along with some extra medium, and painted a few stray branches here and there, along with the trunk. The idea was to give the impression of detail without actually painting all of it. The trees on the left are farther away and thus have less branch details. I think it ended up being pretty effective.

Next up we have #13:

I haven't included any man-made things in this series yet. In fact, I rarely paint buildings in general, so this was a nice change of pace. I was able to get some pretty crisp details using a Flat #2 nylon brush. I stuck with that brush for the buildings, and used mostly #2 Filbert bristle brushes for the rest of the landscape. I referenced a photo I found online, taken in the German countryside.

Palette: Titanium/Flake White, Yellow Ochre, Cadmium Orange, Cadmium Red, Burnt Sienna, Green Earth, Sap Green (Rembrandt), Cobalt Blue, Ivory Black. I also used some of the leftover purples and turquoises that I had mixed for landscapes 11 & 12.

Next up is #14:

Some parts of this painting I really like, others not so much. I like how the trees turned out. Especially the texture of the bark. I'm pretty happy with the background mountains too. The strokes used on the grass/brush in the mid ground (just beyond the three trees) looks too repetitive. I'm not happy with that. I need to work on the foreground grass more. I tend to paint that last, and by the end of the painting I am usually losing patience and rushing things. I need to improve that habit...

Same palette as #13. These were both painted the same day.

I've been thinking about sharing some music on this blog too. Music is something really inspires me, and I am always listening to it. I have Pandora radio going all the time and I love coming across new artists. I think I will post a YouTube clip of what i'm listening to each time I post. Could be a classic, could be something new. Maybe I'll post something that interests you.

11 and 12

2012-01-15T18:51:00.000-08:00

I needed some new material for painting landscapes, so I drove down highway 88 and took some pictures of the Superstition mountains. I drove to the top of a hill off the side of the highway, hiked around a bit, and got lots of good photos.

I've painted 2 landscapes from the photo shoot so far. That makes 12/100 for that goal of mine. Still a ways to go but at least I have started to put a dent in it.

My palette is a little more extensive on these paintings. I used Old Holland oils, again, with Graham Walnut Alkyd Oil as my medium.

Palette: 50/50 Flake/Titanium white, Yellow Ochre, Cadmium Yellow Deep, Cadmium Red Medium, Alizarin Crimson (Williamsburg), Green Earth, Cobalt Blue, Ultramarine, Ivory Black.

In the second painting I used some Natural Sleeping Beauty Turquoise Genuine from Daniel Smith Oils. This paint is made from real turquoise from the Sleeping Beauty Mountain mine in Arizona. It's a really great color. My mom gave me a few Daniel Smith oils for Christmas. They are made from gems, including Malachite, Tigerseye, and an iron oxide red made from Sedona rocks. They are really cool.

Egg and Pitcher

2012-01-10T22:31:00.000-08:00

Happy new year!

I've started a few new paintings. I wanted to take some in-progress pictures again and this egg painting seemed like a good candidate. I'm using a limited palette here of 50/50 Titanium/Flake White, Yellow Ochre, Burnt Sienna, Burnt Umber, and Ivory Black (Old Holland brand). I am using a 50/50 mix of Graham Walnut Alkyd and Stand Oil as my medium. I think I will use a little bit of Indian Yellow and Ruby Lake glazes to get some extra warmth in the shadows, but that should be the extent of my palette on this one.

It's on a 6x8 inch panel.

Day 1:

First I toned the panel with some burnt umber and turpentine. I put it in front of the fan to dry while I set up my palette. I mixed a little bit of my medium in with each color on my palette. After getting the initial sketch and values painted in with burnt umber, I got a rough first layer completed. I used bristle brushes for this stage.

Day 2:

The Walnut Alkyd/Stand Oil mixture caused the surface to be slightly tacky by the next day. Still wet enough to work with but tacky enough to accept more paint. I switched to small sable brushes for this stage. I made some adjustments and refined the shape of the pitcher and some of the reflections. I think at this stage the underpainting is finished.

Next up is glazing. I'm going to try to keep glazing at a minimum. Glazing attracts too much dust, and I find that it is too difficult to control it on such a small painting. Plus I don't really like the gloss.

The egg needs some orange tones added to the shadowed side. A little bit of warm tones need to be added to the pitcher as well. The wood table still needs a lot of work. The reflections need to be toned down a bit, and I also have to add in the wood grain. The grain is very subtle in this piece of wood so it shouldn't take too long.

Day 3/4:

Done

I did a couple layers of glazing and I think I can say this painting is finished. I brought some more color into the shadows with Alizarin Crimson, Ruby Lake, Indian Yellow, Ultramarine Blue, and a touch of Viridian. I went with a few more colors than I had originally planned but I think the wider variety of color looks better. In addition to the glazing I went in with some Titanium White and put in the final bright highlights and reflections.

Sedona... finished?

2011-12-20T13:53:00.000-08:00

Almost finished, I think. There's still some more changes and final touches I want to add to this before I really call it done. I'm still not too happy with the foreground. I'll have to think about it for a few days. It's just about there, though. I'm anxious to get this framed and up on the wall, and start on the next one.

Work-in-progress Gourdes

2011-12-18T23:24:00.000-08:00

Well, it has been a busy past couple of weeks. We had our grand opening at Montage gallery/studio on Mill, which was a huge success. I talked to tons of people, passed out a lot of business cards, and sold 3 paintings.

The Sedona painting is nearly done. I've been working on it at the gallery while I talk to people. People enjoy watching artists work, and having my easel set up in the gallery has brought in more traffic. Since the painting is at the gallery it means I can't take a picture of it right now. D'oh. I'll have to take an update picture during the week.

I've been working on a little side project. I got the itch to do a very refined painting on a panel. I also decided to take some progress photos of everything, from sketch to completion. The panel is a 5x7 pre-primed Masonite panel from Gessobord. I was pretty impressed with the quality, though they can be a little pricey.

After making some thumbnail sketches and deciding on my final composition, I started working on the panel. I began with a charcoal pencil sketch of the subject (in this case, Gourdes. Gourdes were on sale at the grocery store around Halloween, so I bought some and took a bunch of pictures).

The Photo:

The winning thumbnail sketch:

The Charcoal line drawing on the panel:

Finally its time to start painting! I decided I will be using only Old Holland paints for this. The underpainting was done with Flake White and Burnt Umber.

Because I used Flake White (a quick drying pigment) and thin layers, this was dry the next day. Ready for the first layers of opaque color. My palette here (Old Holland, again) is Flake White, Naples Yellow Deep, Yellow Ochre, Cadmium Orange, Cadmium Red Medium, Red Ochre, Green Earth, Cobalt Blue, Burnt Umber, Ivory Black.

I took the picture indoors (it is dark outside right now) so there is a bit of a glare from my studio lamps.

Now the painting is awaiting glazes. Can't wait to get started on that.

12/19 Well I did some glazing last night, and a little more work with opaque paint. I figured I would just edit this post rather than make another one, and keep all the progress photos in one place. Stuff is really starting to take shape now.

Glazing unfortunately makes the painting glossy, and that makes it difficult to photograph. However since I am using only Liquin as my medium it means the painting dries practically overnight. I might be able to paint another glaze layer on tonight.

12/20 Next glaze layer:

Things are looking better. I still need to deepen a lot of the shadows, especially the close gourde. I might be able to get that done in 1 or two more glaze layers. For glazing I used my transparent paints from Old Holland. Old Holland paints are rather expensive, but I am slowly building up my stock of colors. I used Liquin as a glazing medium, and a little bit of Flake White for the areas where I needed to bring up highlights. The rest of the colors were Indian Yellow (orange), Cobalt Yellow, Ruby Lake, Green Earth, Viridian Light, Ultramarine Blue Deep, Ivory Black.

Well I think it's finally finished. I applied another glaze layer last night,with the same palette of transparent colors listed above, with the addition of Permanent Alizarin Crimson (I don't have an Old Holland version of this color so I had to use Winsor&Newton). There's some slight color changes I might make in the next day or two but I think that's probably all the adjustments that need to be made.

On to the next one!

Work-in-progress Sedona landscape

2011-12-06T21:14:00.000-08:00

This painting is 34x26 inches. I'm referencing some pictures I took in Sedona earlier this year. You may recognize the rocks on the left side from a smaller painting I did a few weeks ago. That was more or less a color study for this painting. I've been slowly building up thick layers of paint. The texture is really starting to come out. I've still got a lot to do...

In case you are curious about my palette: 50/50 Titanium White/Flake White, Naples Yellow, Yellow Ochre, Cadmium Yellow Deep, Cadmium Scarlet, Burnt Sienna, Alizarin Crimson, Terra Verte, Cobalt Blue, Ivory Black.

Landscapes 8 and 9

2011-12-02T01:34:00.000-08:00

I have a couple more landscapes. This weekend is the Tempe Festival of the Arts, and I will be at my gallery all weekend. I'm going to have my easel set up and I should hopefully be able to knock out a few more of these landscapes while talking to customers. Hopefully I can sell a painting or two while I'm at it.

Another overcast landscape with a limited palette. I used Titanium/Flake White, Yellow Ochre, Burnt Sienna, Ivory Black, and a touch of Cobalt Blue in the sky. I passed through lots of beautiful farmland when I was driving across the country earlier this year. Wish I would have taken more pictures.

I believe this is a little ways outside of Globe, AZ. I referenced a photo from an old AZ Highways magazine. Palette: Titanium/Flake White, Yellow Ochre, Cadmium Red, Burnt Sienna, Terra Verte, Cobalt Blue, Ivory Black.

100 Landscapes

2011-11-26T17:54:00.000-08:00

I decided I'm going to paint 100 small landscape paintings (5x7). Landscape is probably my favorite subject to paint. I love mixing color and creating a sense of atmosphere. I've been trying out some different palettes and doing a lot of experimentation. I'll list the palette I used under each painting.

I went to Utrecht yesterday and bought them out of 5x7 panels. They only had 34 in stock. Guess I'll be going back.

Anyway, on with the show.

(SOLD)

Titanium White, Yellow Ochre, Cadmium Red, Cobalt Blue, Ivory Black.

Flake White, Yellow Ochre, Cadmium Scarlet, Cobalt Blue, Ivory Black

(SOLD)

I tried working with a more limited Zorn palette here. I eliminated red and replaced it with a muted, brownish red. Flake White, Yellow Ochre, Burnt Sienna, Ivory Black. I think I used a touch of Cobalt Blue in there, but not much.

(SOLD)

This Grand Canyon landscape had a more extensive palette. I'm pretty happy with how this one came out and I like the vibrant colors. I used 50/50 Flake White/Titanium White (to speed up drying time), Yellow Ochre, Cadmium Red, Burnt Sienna, Cobalt Blue, Terra Verte, Sap Green, Ivory Black.

I wanted to get a little bit more color into this overcast, rainy landscape, so I used my old landscape palette. I used this palette throughout college because it's very cheap to buy and you can mix a huge variety of colors from it. Not to mention its the best way to learn color theory. I used (Winsor & Newton) Titanium White/Flake White, Winsor Yellow, Bright Red, French Ultramarine. When you mix all of those grey and neutral tones from the primary colors, you get greys with a lot more "life" to them. It was fun working with this palette again. I'll be doing it some more...

The photo of this came out a little too much on the green side. I still have a lot to learn about photography. I don't normally use the palette knife in my paintings, but I used it to make some grass texture on this one. I'm pretty pleased with the texture, so I'll be doing that again I think. Palette: Titanium White/Flake White, Yellow Ochre, Cadmium Red, Terra Verte, Cobalt Blue, Ivory Black.

(SOLD)

I've really liked painting these overcast scenes with a limited palette. Titanium White/Flake White, Yellow Ochre, Burnt Sienna, Ivory Black. Once again there was a touch of Cobalt used in a portion of the sky.

7 down, 93 to go.

More Landscapes

2011-11-09T19:42:00.000-08:00

First up is another snowy landscape. My main focus was on the abstract shapes created by the trees' cast shadows, and the warm/cool balance.

The next two paintings are of Sedona, AZ. I took a bunch of photos there earlier this year. It was overcast and rainy, but the rain brought out some nice colors in the rocks. In the late afternoon the sun finally came out for a brief time and I was able to get some great shots (third painting).

I'm slowly working my way towards more Old Holland brand paints. I have been really impressed with the quality. I've still got a ton of other brands (W&N, Gamblin, and Rembrandt), but as these get used up I am replacing them with Old Holland. They're expensive but really worth it.

Last up we have another banana painting. I think I'm done with this series. I've started to lose interest in them...

A couple new landscapes

2011-11-02T19:31:00.000-07:00

Landscape is probably my favorite subject to paint. Once in a while I find the time to do a little plein air painting, and I really wish I could do it more often. I'm going to try to make some time available for me to drive up to Sedona again... painting there was a blast.

So, when I want to paint a landscape and I don't have the time to travel or the money for gas, I'll look through my stack of Arizona Highways magazines for inspiration. I don't have a problem referencing photographs for studies, though I do try to change it enough to make it "my own", so to speak. These two paintings took 1-2 hours each, painted on 5x7 canvas panels. I bought a bunch of panels from Utrecht when they were on sale, and then toned them all with thinner, Cadmium Red and Burnt Sienna.

Zorn Palette

2011-10-25T04:20:00.000-07:00

I've been painting so many bright and colorful things lately, so I decided to stir things up a bit. I've wanted to work with a Zorn palette for a while, so I figured now was just as good of a time as ever. Maybe I'll learn some new things about mixing color in the process...

For those unfamiliar with a Zorn palette (google Anders Zorn for some great paintings), it consists of four colors: Flake White, Yellow Ochre, Vermilion, Ivory Black. I replaced the flake white with Titanium White (I'm not using any medium at the moment and flake white is just too stiff to work with on its own), and the Vermilion I replaced with W&N Cadmium Red Scarlet.

The advantage of this palette is that it forces one to work without blue. It's really the most minimal palette one can work with. I played around a bit by mixing colors, and I decided to make a small chart.

Top row: Rembrandt titanium white, Rembrandt yellow ochre, W&N cadmium red scarlet, W&N ivory black.
Row 2: yellow ochre plus white, cad red plus white
Row 3: black/white greys, green plus white
Row 4: black plus yellow ochre
Row 5: yellow ochre/cad red plus white
Row 6: black plus red
Row 7: selection of flesh tones mixed from 3 or all 4 of the colors

I love the idea of having such few colors to work with. I like the simplicity of it, and I am intrigued by the sheer variety of colors that can be mixed from just these 4. With the palette being warm, the neutral greys look cool in comparison... almost blue. The relationships between color is one of the main driving factors in my art. All this mixing made me want to paint...

Nothing says Fall like some festive, seasonal gourdes. Right? This was painted on a 9x12 canvas panel that I toned with a mix of cad red and burnt sienna (ok, so those aren't technically part of the Zorn palette, but I toned all of my panels the other day and didn't have any white ones). Notice how the grey almost looks blue. I really like the color of the shadows and the cool, muted purples in the background. (Edit: added a better photo of the painting)

I learned a lot from this study. I'm definitely going to be working with this palette a lot more.

New works, new website, new blog

2011-10-22T15:23:00.000-07:00

launched my new website today, http://www.msterbenz.com There is still a lot of work to be done, and a lot more for me to learn, but its off to a good start.

I'm currently working on a new series of still life oil paintings. Here are a few of them:

My palette is a little bit different from my usual palette on these paintings. I recently picked up a lot of the more expensive pigments and I have been playing around with them a lot more. I like the vibrancy of them. I began by toning all of my canvases with Cadmium Red Medium and Burnt Sienna, and some thinner. My new banana-themed palette consists of: (In order of placement)

-Titanium White, Cadmium Lemon, Cadmium Yellow Medium, Cadmium Yellow, Cadmium Yellow Deep, Cadmium Red Medium, Permanent Alizarin Crimson, Cobalt Blue, French Ultramarine, Veridian, Indian Yellow, Burnt Sienna, Burnt Umber.

I plan on doing a few more of these to finish off the series. Next up I want to do some more plein air painting.