A Hidden Gem in Boston

Incredible circular stairway leading up to a 30 foot diameter leaded glass dome

I recently visited the fine city of Boston for the first time, just last week,  and I spent a wonderful day squired about by local artist and blonde vivant, Mark Hänser.

Operating on a tip from my fellow ornamentalist Cleta,  we wandered off the  Freedom Trail and scoped out the New England College of Optometry, which is housed in part in a grand 1894 mansion in the historic  Back Bay district.   The staff obliged me by allowing me to snoop around with my camera.

Students crammed for exams in the splendid Victorian rooms, while we  tiptoed through some of the more fabulous parts of the house, gobsmacked at the beautiful oak paneling and magnificent ornamental painting.

above: superbly painted ornamental frieze over a gilt ground in the foyer/sitting area off the main stairway.  These murals are painted on canvas and glued to the walls.

 

Oak stairway topped with a gorgeous leaded glass dome and Italianate ornament painted over gold leaf.

The school campus was completely renovated in the late 1990’s and  has won local and national awards for outstanding preservation and adaptive use of historic buildings. The decorative painting remains in very good condition.

Detail of painted Italiante ornament with stenciled gilt background

A fantastic gold mosaic effect was created by stenciling a geometric pattern over the gold leaf base prior to painting the ornament. This breaks up the reflected light and really gives a marvelous impression, especially in the low winter light.  I fully intend to try this technique in a future project!

The school also has a cozy library and study area, with beautiful ornamental plaster ceilings and polychromed lincrusta on the walls. Look closely at the detail- how many times have I seen this fantastic material painted glossy white? Painted in this way it can emulate Renaissance-era  embossed leather wallcoverings.

detail of textured library walls

A florid bit of polychromed lincrusta with 12 karat gold accents,  in the NECO library

All images in this post by Lynne Rutter

please click on the images to see them at larger size!

Lynne Rutter Murals and Decorative Painting

Ornamental Borders Workshop

Announcing the latest in our series of specialized workshops for professional decorative artists working to enhance and refine their skills


section of a ceiling border by Lynne Rutter

Ornamental Borders: Two Day Intensive Workshop
San Francisco, March 6-7, 2010
instructor: Lynne Rutter

Borders are the most versatile of ornamental embellishments! Even the simplest design can create a wonderful impact on a space. In this class we'll explore multiple techniques used to create some Renaissance-style ornamental borders, with an emphasis on design and transfer methods, as well as painting techniques including stenciling, pouncing, trompe l'oeil, lining, and gilding.
Learn each simple method and how to put them together to create more complicated designs. We'll discuss how to adapt ornament for a variety of different applications in today's interiors, while you create your own set of samples in hands-on practice.

class fee: $695
price includes lunch and all materials, stencils, and a comprehensive set of brushes valued at $150.



location: Lynne Rutter Studio
2325 3rd St. #207, San Francisco, CA

Classes are held from 9 AM to 5:30 PM, with a one hour "study hall" at the end of each day, during which students may remain in the studio to practice at their own pace.

To reserve a space in this workshop, contact Lynne Rutter

• send deposit of $250.
• make checks payable to Lynne Rutter, and send to 2325 Third St #207, San Francisco, CA 94107.
• credit cards accepted for deposit via PayPal, contact Lynne for details.
• Deposits are not refundable after March 1, 2010.
• Remaining fee is due at the start of class.
  

ceiling of the Santa Croce Church, Florence

Lynne Rutter Murals + Decorative Painting

Oil Gilding Workshops

Obsessed with Gilding? So are we!
Expert gilder Melissa Goldman and I have added another weekend of workshops on the art of gilding, designed for professional decorative artists working to enhance their skills.

Traditional Oil Gilding --- 2 day Intensive Hands-on Workshop:
April 24-25, 2010 Saturday and Sunday

instructor: Melissa Goldman Gilding Conservator

location: Lynne Rutter Studio
2325 3rd St. #207, San Francisco, CA
Come and join us to learn the principles, properties and history of materials for traditional Oil Gilding!
This class will be specific to architectural gilding and three-dimensional objects such as furniture, frames, and objects d’art. You will learn how to properly prepare any surface to receive pure gold leaf or imitation leaf (Compositon/Dutch metal).
For this workshop, we will practice using both imitation gold and aluminum leaf. How to lay genuine gold and silver leaf, “surface” and “patent”, will also be demonstrated and discussed. Mica powders, hard-waxes, traditional sealants and patination materials and techniques will be demonstrated and applied.

This class is open to all levels of skill. Students with water gilding experience will learn how to add burnished “highlights” to their work.

Architectural moulding samples and carved objects will be provided to work on. Students may also bring in their own objects to review and/or work on.

Please join us for this fun, practical, and highly informative workshop!

class fee including lunch, and all materials: $525.
see below for reservation instructions

Applying aluminum leaf to the entire ceiling creates a brilliant Hollywood Regency look for one of Lynne's clients

Gilding for Decorative Painters
One day Intensive: Monday, April 26, 2010
instructor: Lynne Rutter

In this action-packed day we will practice basic gilding of flat surfaces using various techniques and materials, including traditional oil size and acrylic size. Learn techniques for how to lay metal leaf on walls and ceilings as a spectacular decorative surface; and how (and when!) to add gilt details to painted ornament. We'll discuss appropriate and effective use of different metals including gold, composition gold, aluminum, copper, etc. Preparation, trouble-shooting tips, and finishing will also be covered.

Class fee: $375
includes including lunch, all materials, and gilding brush set valued at $80.
to reserve your space, see below

Classes are held from 9 AM to 5:30 PM, with a one hour "study hall" at the end of each day, during which students may remain in the studio to practice at their own pace.


To reserve a space in these classes, contact Lynne Rutter and send your deposit by April 16.

<------ 22 karat gold leaf and painted sunburst, the focal point of this ornamental cartouche by Lynne Rutter

• deposit for Oil Gilding Workshop: $200
• deposit for Gilding for Decorative Painters: $100
• make checks payable to Lynne Rutter, and send to 2325 Third St #207, San Francisco, CA 94107.
• Reservations are on a first-come first-served basis, so book early to assure your place.
  
• Deposits are not refundable after April 17, 2010
• credit cards accepted for deposit via PayPal, contact Lynne for details.

• 
  
  Lynne Rutter Murals and Decorative Painting

A Feast for the Eyes

If there is anything a decorative artist might love more than beautiful picture books, it's good food.
So, a group of 11 fellow painters and I have assembled a collection of inspiring images from travels and observations with the camera, as well as a few shots of our own work, and mixed them together with our favorite recipes to make a unique little cookbook called A Feast for the Eyes: Memorable Recipes and Images from Decorative Artists.

Our self-published book is a nimble little 7"x7" volume featuring 21 of our favorite recipes, and 51 inspiring color photographs collected from all over the world: from Indiana to China, from Florence, Italy to Orinda, California.
The variety of recipes and the easy preparation of each dish makes this a useful book to keep handy, and the treasury of photographs will give you a thrill even when you are not cooking.


A Feast for the Eyes is currently available through the Blurb.com Bookstore.

Lynne Rutter Murals & Decorative Painting

Chrysler Ceiling Mural: a quick look!

Art Deco borders abound in the lobby of the Chrysler Building

During a recent visit to New York City, I had a short morning to take in a couple of sights with my friend Emily, visiting from England. Fortunately if you are fan of architecture, and Art Deco surface ornament in particular, there is plenty to see just walking through Grand Central Terminal and the street outside, on the way to one of my all-time favorites, the Chrysler Building.

At the time of its completion in 1930, the Chrysler was the tallest building in the world, and the lobby ceiling mural by Edward Turnbull, entitled Transport and Human Endeavor was the largest mural in the world, at 78 by 100 feet. Originally titled "Energy, Result, Workmanship and Transportation," an obvious sense of ambition informs the mural on other levels - it's all about achievement, hard work, accomplishment; being the biggest, best, fastest, strongest, first!

Painted on canvas and applied marouflage to the ceiling, this mural has thankfully survived age, and several renovations, including the inexplicable addition of recessed can lights, which were removed during the most recent restoration in 1999.

It is hard to appreciate the ceiling mural because the lobby is rather dark. With its rich red Moroccan marble walls and elaborate inlaid wood elevator doors, there is a lot to see without even looking up. But if you can stay long enough to get used to the cocktail lounge lighting, you will notice so much more.

The focal point in Turnbull's mural: muscles and decorative ka-pow!

What caught my eye this particular visit was all the great decorative elements of the mural. Along with Art Deco borders, there are transitions, and patterns, with a nod to the Vienna Secession.

Look closely and you will see colors, patterns, and pistons! Machines are cool!

Metal leaf is used throughout this painting to great effect. I love this scene, which is painted with pattern, figures, color, and even one figure which is only sketched in. Note the artist's initials "E.T." on the level.

photos by Lynne Rutter, November 2009
click on the images to view larger

Lynne Rutter Murals and Decorative Painting

blue and ivory

I was talking with one of my fellow painters about what to do when you are stumped. I said "try some blue." I seem to remember one of my mentors telling me that it was one of the rules of good design, that there needs to be a bit of blue in every well dressed room. This advice has never failed me!
Think about it, does your great grandmother's flow blue platter ever look bad anywhere?

Likewise when I was asked to add a bit of ornament and color to an antique ivory-colored corner hutch, for a Provinçal-style room designed by Claudia Juestal of Adeeni Design, I turned to blue. How perfect for a room with lots of red and yellow!

The enhancement of this piece started with a loosely painted wedgewood-blue scroll. On the cabinet doors, scenes from a favorite toile de jouy pattern are a nod to the French country tradition.

Another blue and ivory piece I painted recently is this large folding screen, which was custom built for the Vintage Laundry room I designed in the San Francisco Decorator Showcase.

The screen is painted with some neoclassical motifs and lighthearted singerie scenes, with monkeys sewing and doing laundry. This restrained hint of color added just right amount of the blue finesse to dress up the room.

Click on images to view larger


Okay but what about other colors? Have a look in the gallery on my website, to see some more colorful painted furniture.


All work in this post ©Lynne Rutter
screen photos by David Papas

Lynne Rutter Murals and Decorative Painting

Overlooked Ornament in the Salette Borgia

Detail of a ceiling in the Borgia Apartments, Vatican

Visitors to the Vatican Museums have enough to take in without looking at all the painted borders and ornament that encrust nearly every square foot of the place. However, on my last visit, that is precisely what I was doing!

After bidding my companions not to wait for me, and after further hours of careful ceiling-gazing, I was still stopped in my tracks by two small chambers of the Salette Borgia, whose early Renaissance ornamentation is noticeably different in style than the majority of the palace. Ironically these rooms are the entrance to what is now the Collection of Modern Religious Art, which many visitors nearly run through on their way to the Sistine Chapel.

<---- in the Salette Borgia: elegantly painted in jewel tones, and blissfully empty of visitors.

These and other parts of the Borgia Apartments were decorated with wonderful frescoes and ornament including some stylish grottesche, and fresco murals, painted in the 15th century by renown artist Pinturicchio and his sizable atelier of assistants.

painted wall drapery with the Papal coat of arms of Alexander VI

This entire suite of rooms in the Apostolic Palace was abandoned in 1503, after the death of Pope Alexander VI, because of their association with the disgraced Borgia family. Shuttered and largely disused for nearly two centuries, they escaped redecoration by later popes.

worn tile floors: evidence of hundreds of thousands of visitors passing through.

A wall paneled with stenciled patterns, and a trompe l'oeil window.
Above it, a fresco by Pinturicchio depicting the Annunciation.

In 1891 the rooms and the artwork in them were restored under Pope Leo XIII and opened to the public. Now they seem to be treated as a mere passageway between the more famous parts of the museum... except by those of us who stop to look up.

<--- Another detail of the ceiling- note the jewel tone color scheme and the grotesque ornament




Click on any image to view larger




photos in this post by Lynne Rutter, Vatican City, 2008

Lynne Rutter Murals and Decorative Painiting

Cloud painting workshop!

A warm cloudscape, painted for the Westin St. Francis Hotel, San Francisco

It's been a while since I taught a class, so I am very excited about my upcoming workshop on painted cloud ceilings, November 6 - 7, 2009 at Creative Evolution Studios in Connecticut.

Cloudscapes can be painted as beautiful soaring ceilings on their own, or as the base for grand murals. We’ll explore various aspects of composing cloudscapes of different shapes and sizes to suit the proportions of the ceiling, as well as using different color palettes and other techniques for tailoring the mural to the room.

rotunda dome cloudscape, painted for the Cypress Lawn Funeral Home, Colma, CA. approx 380 square feet

This two day intensive workshop will be help in Durham, Connecticut, at Creative Evolution Studios.

Day 1
- Cloud ceilings: demo and slide show
- Practice technique using a pre-mixed palette
- Basic compositional matters for rectangular and "tray" ceilings
- Creating palettes for different colors and "moods" of skies.
- Students will complete two different cloudscape panels.

Day 2
- Advance cloud composition, designing for domes and round ceilings
- Matching colors of cloudscapes to work with the interior design of the room
- Designing clouds to use with figures or as part of more involved ceiling murals
- Marouflage techniques for adding figures or birds into a ceiling

The Nine Muses, cloud ceiling mural with marouflage figures,
painted for the David Allen Co., Raleigh, NC photo: Jim Sink

Two-Day Cloud Painting Workshop
who: Lynne Rutter
when: November 6-7, 2009
9 am - 5 pm
where: Creative Evolution Studios
16 Main Street, Durham, CT
(860) 334-5504
how: sign up here!



All images in this post are work painted by Lynne Rutter ©Lynne Rutter
click on image to view larger

Lynne Rutter Murals and Decorative Painting

The long lost sketchbook of Jeanne Magnin

In true ornamentalist fashion, Jeanne Magnin collected borders and motifs from her travels, and documented them in beautifully drawn and composed pages.

Egyptian border, from Jeanne Magnin's Documente de Style 1916 - 1917

Tara Bradford, the creative force behind one of my favorite blogs, Paris Parfait, found a little plain brown paper bundle at a brocante, which turned out to be a sketchbook full of gorgeous designs of Egyptian, Roman, and Greek styles, collected in 1916-1917 by the French painter, collector, and art critic Jeanne Magnin.

Egyptian ornament, from Jeanne Magnin's Documente de Style 1916 - 1917

Tara was generous enough to photograph each page of her amazing find and post them to her blog, at very high resolution. With her permission I have re-posted some of them here.

Roman-style rinceau and bucrane borders, sketches by Jeanne Magnin

In true ornamentalist fashion, Magnin collected borders and motifs from her travels, and documented them in beautifully drawn and composed pages.

Greek ornament: a page of palmettes

Each page is like traveling to another time and place. Greek motifs, Jeanne Magnin's Documente de Style 1916 - 1917

Magnin was the author of Le paysage français, published in 1928 and Un cabinet d'amateur parisien en 1922. You can learn more about Jeanne Magnin by visiting Le Musee Magnin in Dijon, France.
All photos in this post by Tara Bradford- click on images to view larger.

Follow the links below for more inspiration from Documente de Style 1916 - 1917
Egyptian designs
Roman designs
Greek designs

Lynne Rutter Murals and Decorative Painting

The Silver Kitchen

This gorgeous custom kitchen was recently featured in the Spring 2009 issue of Better Homes and Gardens "Beautiful Kitchens." This room features a silver and ecru color palette and is dressed with rock crystal and stainless steel. I painted a faux limestone finish on the walls and used venetian lime plaster to create the irregular stone-like finish on the range hood.

These warm stone finishes compliment the silver pearlescent cabinets and white calcutta marble counter. Silver is a recurring theme color in this Piedmont, Ca. home, where I contributed color design and well as many other decorative finishes.













photo courtesy Camber Construction, where you can see more of my work in this house.

Lynne Rutter Murals & Decorative Painting

Arabesque

An interior detail of the new Grand Mosque Abu Dhabi, photo by Imran Akram

My fascination with Arabesque ornament... may have begun in Prague many years ago, when I first saw the Španělské Synagogy "Spanish Synagogue", built in 1868 in the Moorish Revival style. Inside it is completely covered in geometric Arabesque designs. Seeing the architectural ornamentation on such a scale made me want to run home and encrust every surface I could find with pattern.

A plate from "Art arabe : mosquée de Qaouâm el-Dyn: détails du tombeau" (1877)


It's not just that it's pretty, but it resonates with the math geek in me. The division of space, the arrangement of color, the... fractals!

Arabesque art developed in regions where Islam has been dominant; such as Morocco, Moorish Spain, India, Turkey, and the Arab states; and embodies Muslim precepts in its themes, with the focus on patterns rather than on figures. The depiction of the human form is forbidden, considered too close to idolatry, and so the art tends to be decorative and ornamental in style - geometric, floral, calligraphy.
The style has inspired and influenced non-Islamic ornament and architecture in Europe and elsewhere, particularly in the 19th century with the trend towards in Orientalism in design, and romantic "revival" styles of architecture.

The incredible new Grand Mosque Abu Dhabi is a project that I have been watching with interest. It was completed in March, 2008, and I am especially gleeful over the work of British designer Kevin Dean included in the massive courtyard's inlaid marble floors (above) and archways, a fantastic modern take on the floral elements of this style. More gorgeous pictures of this splendid new mosque can be found on the photography site of Imran Akram.

"Islam Ornament" (mosaic ceilings) photographed in Pakistan by Judith Barath

Mosaics can also play a prominent role in the ornamentation of buildings. In addition to the overall appearance of a colorful pattern, the play of light over the surface of thousands of tiles adds another level to the message of this art: this all fits together in an infinite pattern... do you see now, how you too are part of a larger pattern, how you belong?


How envious I am of my friend and colleague Tania Seabock, for this incredible ceiling she created for a client in the arabesque style, which includes tens of thousands of gold faux mosaic tiles!

I have a room set aside for my own spin on arabesque ornament, and look forward to sharing my inspiration and progress.

Some internet resources:

New York Public Library Digital Gallery

Islamic Art photo set by Flickr member Sir Cam

The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia

IAAO: Islamic Arts and Architecture





Some recommended books on Arabesque ornament:

Arabesques. Decorative Art in Morocco

The Majesty of Mughal Decoration: The Art and Architecture of Islamic India

The Art of the Islamic Tile

Ipek: The Crescent & the Rose: Imperial Ottoman Silks and Velvets

Iznik: The Artistry of Ottoman Ceramics

Islamic Art in Detail

Arabic Art in Color (Dover Pictorial Archive Series)

Lynne Rutter Murals & Decorative Painting