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

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

Water Gilding Workshop

Water gilding is the gorgeous traditional technique of applying gold leaf over a specially prepared surface for a mirror-bright shiny result! I have wanted to learn how to do traditional water gilding for a long time.

So I asked my colleague Melissa Goldman, an accomplished gilder and furniture restoration expert, to teach me and a few of my decorative painter friends. We decided to develop a class for experienced artisans wishing to enhance and refine their skills, hosted at my spacious studio in San Francisco.

In addition to the two day basic Water Gilding Class December 12-13, we will have a one-day workshop on traditional Sgraffito techniques December 14.

Check out the details below, and join us in December for three days of gold heaven!



Water Gilding 2 day Intensive
Saturday-Sunday December 12-13, 2009 9 AM - 5:30 PM

Learn the history and principles of the ancient art of Water Gilding.
Hands-on preparation and application of historic, non-toxic materials such as gesso, bole, rabbit skin glue and gilding liquor.
Students will learn to lay genuine 22kt gold leaf.
Various patination techniques will also be discussed, demonstrated and applied.
We will water gild sample mouldings and create "burnished" and "matte" effects
Students will be able to take their samples home.

Class fee $695

Includes gilding materials: wooden picture frame and/or mouldings, 1 book of 22k gold leaf, cheese cloth, horse-hair cloth, 1lb.whiting, rabbit skin glue, wet dry sand paper, cotton, mixing sticks, Selhamin red and yellow clay, mica powder, shellac, rottenstone and raw and burnt umber earth pigments.
Includes tool kit valued at $120.00 with 2 brushes, a gilder’s tip, pad, agate burnisher, gilder’s knife, mop, vaseline, steel wool, and cotton.

$695! for 2 full days of instruction, tools, materials, and lunch! both days!
(deal-o-rama!)




Sgraffito 1 day workshop
Monday, December 14 , 2009 9 AM - 4 PM

Students will learn the traditional techniques of Sgrafitto; the art of painting a color over burnished gold, followed by using a soft tool to "scratch" designs and lines through the paint, thereby revealing the gold beneath. You can do very detailed ornament this way. Spectacular! A handmade bone tool will be provided to each student.

Class Fee: $275.


Please note: these are not beginner classes! Some previous experience handling metal leaf is helpful in learning this technique.


Deposit of $275 is required to reserve space in the Water Gilding Workshop
Deposit of $100 is required for the Sgraffito Workshop
Send a check or reserve via PayPal
Remaining payment is due the first day of class

Deposits are not refundable after December 1.
Remaining payment will be collected the first day of class.

Contact Lynne Rutter with questions, or to reserve space in these classes.


Melissa Goldman with some shining examples of her work


All images in this post ©Melissa Goldman.

Lynne Rutter Murals and Decorative Painting

Italian Painted Ceiling: work in progress

Our current project is a large ceiling divided into coffers, for our client's home being transformed with a Northern Italian look. We are painting the panels in the studio on medium weight canvas (Sierra and Melka, pictured above)
The design takes its inspiration from a mix of Florentine paper and grottesca ornament, and uses a cooler palette of roses and blues from our client's fabulous oriental carpet.

As each of the ceiling coffers are slightly different in size and shape, I designed a simple and colorful foliate ornament which when repeated (112 times!) will help make the ceiling look more symmetrical.

We started by developing the corner element. This sketch was copied to a master drawing, and then separated into a simple stencil design. We used the stencil to transfer the basic shape or the ornament to the canvas using four colors of matte acrylic paint.
Each element is then hand-shaded with four more colors, and lined with burnt sienna.

The canvases are then overglazed, and some areas gilt with a fine line of 22 karat gold, for that little glint of a highlight.
We hope to install this ceiling in early June.

Gilt highlights

I found this very sweet little trompe l'oeil molding with gilt highlights, in a small passageway of the Hofburg, next to the Empress Sisi's novel indoor convenience. It mimics the grander gilt plaster ornament in the adjoining apartments.

Click on the images to view larger.
This is very simply painted, and the highlights are gilt with a lemon-colored gold leaf. Notice the burnt sienna accents which create reflected highlights. In this tiny dim hallway, this trompe l'oeil is perfectly scaled and very effective.
photos by Lynne Rutter, 2007

Lynne Rutter Murals & Decorative Painting

Gilt trompe l'oeil: Versailles

Ceiling ornament detail, Châteu de Versailles: neoclassical style trompe l'œil ornament with gilt highlights; gilt panels with trompe l'oeil shadows. This gorgeous bit of painting dates from the Second Empire.
(click on image to enlarge) look closely, you can even see the brushstrokes.
photo by Lynne Rutter, 2007

Lynne Rutter Murals and Decorative Painting

filling the ornament bank

Vienna
Unteres Belvedere: Goldenes Zimmer
designed circa 1720 by architect Johann Lucas von Hildebrandt for Prince Eugene of Savoy (1663-1736)
decorative artist: unknown


one of the reasons i travel is to be inspired by the work of others, and be reminded of what i can do, what i want to do, rather than just what i have to do; it renews my interest in my chosen career.
i am also making a photographic "ornament bank" for reference, both for myself and for the decorative painting world in general- it will wind up either as an on-line digital source or possibly a book.

at any rate, i need to see places like this once in a while and ask- why does no one ask me to make a room like this? because i can do it, just so you know. and what's more, i want to, and i know why it matters.

Lynne Rutter Murals & Decorative Painting

Paris Ceiling featured in Traditional Building Magazine

The detailed process of ornamenting a 900 square foot ceiling in the new Paris Casino Resort Hotel in Las Vegas, is outlined in the article "Vegas Hotel Gambles on Classical Design..." by Nicole V. Gagne
including photos of the work in progress.click on each image to view large enough to read.

Published in Traditional Building Magazine , June 2004