The Ornamentalist

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

Labels: decorative painting, gilding, grotesque, ornament, photography, polychrome

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

Labels: classes, decorative painting, ornament, stenciling

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

Labels: decorative painting, murals, ornament, travel

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

Labels: decorative painting, ornament, travel, Vatican

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

Labels: art, collecting, decorative painting, ornament

Chinoiserie, Italian Style

Sala Cinese, Palazzo Moroni, Bergamo

Chinoiserie is still one of my favorite styles of decoration. All the rage in Europe in the late 17th and 18th centuries, it endures as a classic style of "theme" room, a fantastic mix of exotic Asian motifs and European techniques and sensibilities. One of the most charming examples I have ever seen is this room in the Palazzo Moroni, in Bergamo.
The ceiling appears to be a colorful pink tent, with a lace "cap" at the top, the signs of the zodiac at its center.

Excellent landscape murals surround the "frieze" level of this room. Note the perspective in the paintings, which are all viewed from below.

Detail of the ceiling: I just adore that lace edging, and the border of little pavilions.

These fantasy buildings remind me of San Francisco's Chinatown, whose architecture was designed in 1906, to reflect the western impression of ancient Chinese buildings. Obviously not a new thing.

I visited the Palazzo Moroni during the International Decorative Painting Salon which was held in Bergamo earlier this year. Our gracious host for this event was Lucretia Moroni, a scion of the Moroni family, and herself a world-renown decorative artist. As you can imagine the group of painters visiting this palazzo were very appreciative of its historic murals and terribly grateful to be allowed to take pictures.

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

Lynne Rutter Murals and Decorative Painting

Labels: chinoiserie, murals, orientalism, ornament, travel

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.