Marvelous books from Editions Vial

I seem to have amassed a considerable library, the majority (by volume) of which are design and architectural books. A large number of the most amazing and useful décor books in my library come from the French publisher, Editions H. Vial.

These books are, with rare exception, inexplicably unavailable via the "usual" US outlets, but I have had the good fortune of acquiring a number of them in person, at the fabulous bookstore of the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris, and at the recent Chicago gathering of the International Salon of Decorative Painters, where Vial premiered the new (bilingual) book of decorative painting techniques by master trompe l'oeil artist and revered Salon member Michel Nadaï.


Michel was good enough to inscribe a copy of his book for me.

I have purchased a number of well priced volumes via Chapitre in Paris (who ship quickly and without gouging you about handling) and you may buy the books directly through the Editions Vial website.

Michel Nadai's book is also available through several decorative painting schools in the US, like Pierre Finklestein's on-line shop.







some my current favorites are:

Identifying Marble
Decoration de Bois et Marbres
Chefs d'OEvre des Marqueteurs
Modeles de Peinture Polychrome sur Meubles
Art et techniques de la peinture décorative
Meubles et Décors Peints

In a few months, Vial will also release the much-anticipated book Imitations et décors à l'école Van der kelen from the prestigious Van der Kelen Institut supérieur de peinture.


I understand Editions Vial have a booth at the annual SALI exposition this week, and anyone near Charlotte, NC would do well to visit this exposition if only to buy books.
But also be on the lookout for decorative painting DVDs, wonderful stencils from Helen Morris and Sheri Hoeger, as well as all the latest goo being used in the "faux" business these days.

Lynne Rutter Murals & Decorative Painting

Marouflage Ceiling in progress

122 hand painted ornaments, 28 canvases, 12 colors of paint, 5 rolls of 22k ribbon gold leaf...

This week we started to hang the "Italian Ceiling" which we have been painting on canvas in the studio for the last several months.









I am elated that my fabulous installer Peter Bridgman, who has been living in Florence the last year or more studying art restoration techniques, came home just in time to help me with this project.
Each ceiling panel is pasted with clay based adhesive and allowed to dry. The back of the canvas is then moistened with water, and a second, fat coat of paste put on the ceiling just before the canvas is applied.

In the longest panel we found that the chandelier electrical box was not actually in the center. Bad news, since an elaborate rosette was painted for the center. This is always a danger when painting canvases for ceilings that have not yet been framed. No matter what the carpenters tell you about how perfect their measurements are, they are never, ever correct. That's why the design of this ceiling incorporated a lot of "bleed" on the outside edges.

Peter's technique is to find the "priority" edge and work from there. Sometimes the priority is the "center", and sometimes is the spot that makes the ornament line up with the ornament in the next coffer. Some pulling and adjusting and language is usually needed. Most of the panels, however, seem to smooth out like butter on bread.
Once the canvases are smoothed into place they are left to rest while they tighten; they are then trimmed neatly to fit. My assistants and I paint the lighting trim, vent covers, etc. to match, and touch up or embellish wherever needed.

After today the false floor that allowed us access to this part of the 22 foot high ceiling is being removed, so we were in a crush to get that area finished.
Next week we will install the remaining 17 ceiling panels, and start working on the walls! stay tuned....


Marouflage is in the glossary!

Lynne Rutter Murals & Decorative Painting

A Spandrel Ornament

Here are some work in progress pictures of an ornament I used as a demonstration panel at Salon earlier this month.

This is version of a spandrel element I designed for a huge ceiling in the Paris Casino Resort in Las Vegas. That design was inspired by the ceiling ornament in the St Francis of Assisi Church in Sacramento, which I got to study closely while working on its restoration.

<--ornament in its base form

I still have my master drawings from the Paris ceiling, so I used one of the pounces to transfer part of the design onto some primed canvas.
The basic shapes are blocked in with two colors: pale green and salmon pink.

My ceiling in the Paris Casino Resort

Next the foliate shapes are shaded with several colors, and accented with yellow ochre. I use a dry brush technique to do this, so that the base color still shows through a bit.
All this makes for a pretty wild palette, but it's very effective especially from some distance.


The ornament is further defined by lining it with burnt sienna.

This panel found a home in nearby Elgin. Enjoy it, Sigi!


More about this year's Salon
Photos of the wonderful work exhibited at Salon at Flickr
Spandrel is in the glossary!

Lynne Rutter Murals & Decorative Painting

Grotesque obsession

As an Ornamentalist (and posting this while currently traveling in Italy) I can't help but obsess just a bit about the grotesque ornamentation that covers entire ceilings and indeed whole rooms in some of the places I have visited recently.

Grotesque figures found in a window of the Gallery of Maps, Vatican Museum, Rome

I am also absolutely rapt with my newest aquisition, Les Grotesques by Allessandra Zamperini, a comprehensive and lavishly illustrated book that traces the history of the form, from ancient Pompeii to the bestiaries and drolleries of medieval manuscripts, to the discovery of the Domus Aurea in the 15th century that inspired Raphael and his contemporaries to create an entire system of "grottesche" ornamentation, which endured as a major influence in painted decor for centuries, including singerie, neo-classical, and 19th century revival interiors. I bought the French version of the book while in Florence and have only slightly minded its weight in my luggage this last week.

Rome: ground zero for Grotesca
In future travels I'd love to visit the Guila Romano, Palazzo Farnese, Villa d'Este and some of the other fabulous villas that sport this kind of painting.

This time, I did get to spend a long day at the The Vatican Museum:

Renaissance "grottesche" ornamentation created by Raphael and his team of decorative painters in 1517-22.

Vatican - Museo Pio Clementino: details of ornamentation
by Christoforo Unterperger circa 1776

Santa Maria dell'Anima, Rome: detail of a chapel painted by Francesco Salviati, 1548.

Florence: The Uffizi

Spectacular painted ceilings in the main corridors, many of which were painted by Antonio Tempesta and Alessandro Allori around 1580

Detail of above ceiling

A small spandrel ornament on the lower floor of the Uffizi

note: photography is not permitted inside the Uffizi, so my images were taken by stealth.
Some of the other stealth photographers sharing this work on the web:
groenling's flickr set
MikevV

All of the images in this post photographed by Lynne Rutter, April 2008.
Select any image to view at larger size.

Lynne Rutter Murals & Decorative Painting

dissolving/evolving facades

Postcard from Rome...

Near the Campo de' Fiore there is a small building of some considerable age, bent and worn, the lower part covered in graffiti.
At the top of the facade, you can see a lovely frieze decoration that cleverly marries neoclassical and art nouveau styles: angel figures, fountains, and horses, and a vitruvian wave border, created from horse heads.


















If you look very closely at the surface in the center of the building, you can see the ghost of an earlier decoration - a simple trompe l'oeil grid pattern that was all the rage in the 16th century.

The more exposed base of this facade has worn down to its bricks, and a new buildup of spray painted sentiments has begun.

Lynne Rutter Murals & 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.

Faux Marquetry Ceilings: Rathaus, Vienna

detail of a faux marquetry ceiling panel, Rathaus, Vienna

In September we traveled to Vienna, Austria, where Erling attended the ISMIR conference, and happily, a banquet organized by the city of Vienna for them in the Rathaus- the city hall built in the 1870s in the Gothic Revival style. It is spectacular inside, loaded with graceful arches, stenciled vaulted ceilings, and encaustic tile floors. A large number of rooms have stenciled wood faux marquetry ceilings.

<---dinner with ISMIR participants. there were other women there besides me, you know, waiting tables.

My enthusiasm for the ornament in the building must have been somewhat contagious, as a number of the banquet attendees accompanied me as I snuck from room to room shooting ceilings in the dark.

And to think, I was worried I'd be bored at this event!

These ceilings are made from a light colored pine, that has been beautifully stenciled with pigment or stain to give the look of marquetry; the wood looks richer and the room more grand. The ornament itself is relatively simple and repeated to give an opulent surface without looking too cluttered.

In this room, the lacunaria have been gilt on the edges, I believe with a low karat gold and tinted varnish.

Some of the stenciling appears to have been done in reverse- pigment is applied, and then removed through the stencil.

These are great borders which could be applied to wall paneling, floors, or furniture as well as ceilings.

More images are posted at my flickr account.

Lynne Rutter Murals & Decorative Painting

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

Needle Lace Exhibit at Lacis

<---- 17th Century Gros Point de Venise lace border

Saturday Kathleen Crowley and I ventured to Berkeley to pick up corset supplies at one of my favorite places- Lacis, where one can get all those little necessities for costuming and beautful living, like chatelaines, patterns for period clothing, corset busques, pewter clasps, bone knitting needles, and of course, lace....

While there I got a tour in their small but fabulous Lace Museum. The current exhibit features some outstanding hand made needle lace from the 16th-19th century, that rivals the lace collection I saw recently at the MAK in Vienna.

this exhibit displays incredible examples of European lace, with photo-enlargements of pattern details, as well as illustrations of how it was used in collars, sleeves, etc.

punto in aria

a spectacular lace fan, and detail of its pattern

click on the images to see larger images and more detail.

Lynne Rutter Murals & Decorative Painting

Gothic Ornament: Église de Saint-Germain-des-Prés

How many different borders can you use in one springing arris?

There are few surviving examples of true Gothic decorative painting. Most of what we can see now is the result of the appreciation and revival of romantic and antique styles during the 19th Century.

Fortunately in the case of Église de Saint-Germain-des-Prés, the oldest church in Paris, there were significant amounts of original 13th and 14th century ornament to document, despite fires, the sacking of the church in 1789, and the ill use of the building during the next ten years which greatly damaged its interior.

The decorative painting as we see it now, was restored/recreated in 1845. It is remarkable how some of the oldest ornament looks the most modern. Those geometric borders (polka dots!) especially.
An interesting description of the history of this building can be found in this text of a 1921 guidebook.

While taking these photographs I had the pleasure of speaking with one of the priests in the church, who pointed out to me some of the better areas to photograph, and explained to me that areas of the interior had been scrubbed of its paint during more recent repairs. There is currently no plan for any restoration or cleaning.

photo by Lynne Rutter, 2007

Lynne Rutter Murals & Decorative Painting

Trompe l'oeil bas-relief

more ornament for the bank...

Schoenbrunn, Vienna: trompe l'oeil bas-relief and mouldings, circa 1750. This is painted into the curved corner a coved ceiling.


Detail showing brushwork.
There is the barest hint of rose and green in the shadows and highlights.

photo by Lynne Rutter 2007

Lynne Rutter Murals & Decorative Painting

Gothic organ case

more for the ornament bank:

Strasbourg Cathedral: gothic organ case, circa 1385, with foliate ornament, carved ribs w/gold leaf.
Photo by Lynne Rutter 2007

Lynne Rutter Murals and 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