simple design = big change!

sketch for silhouette mural: run spot run!

I recently completed a deceptively simple silhouette mural, for a veterinary ophthalmology practice in San Francisco. This mural is designed for a bumpy, angled, and very long hallway wall.
For an assignment like this the two most important things are a good drawing, and the right color.The wall "before" was stark white, in an uneven 36 foot long sloping hallway. Work in progress: Just painting the wall blue had a tremendous impact on this space.

bulldog and horse see eye to eye!

The client asked that the design feature a variety of animals, emphasize the importance of sight, as well as show interaction between the animals and their human companions.
Here are some more details:

kathy explaining derivatives to her hound.

the great butterfly hunt!

Both the reception area and the hall now have a nice view!

You can see this mural in person at the office of Veterinary Vision in San Francisco.

Lynne Rutter Murals & Decorative Painting

Victorian Woodgraining

This splendid Victorian front door set with leaded glass windows
was finished with a simplified faux bois effect by Lynne Rutter.

In San Francisco Victorians, it's fairly common that the dark woodwork so commonly found in their interiors is actually redwood, that has been painted with a faux bois finish to look like something richer and more expensive. This style of woodgraining usually emulated mahogany, and was often nothing more than a layer of deep tinted glaze pulled over a painted surface, then varnished. This simplified faux bois technique is a remarkably effective treatment.
In older American cities like New York or Chicago the faux bois used in Victorian homes was a complicated process resulting in a realistic imitation of wood, but in boomtown San Francisco, there were few skilled painters available in the rapidly growing city, so most made do with a very simple graining job; and then it was off to the next house!

One of my specialties as a restoration painter is rehabilitating and recreating these period finishes, which requires careful matching of color and mimicking the style of the original painter.

Missing ceiling mouldings were recreated (left) then glazed to match the original finish (right)

In this Mission District Italiante mansion, removal of a 20th century dropped ceiling in the dining room revealed the original mouldings, damaged but well worth saving! Missing areas were re-created by a carpenter, and then we painted them with a woodgrain effect to match the original finish. We also created a typical faux bois finish for the baseboards, doors, and casings, to restore the room's period look.

My associate Melka Myers is creating a burl effect in the insets of some reproduction doors.

The parlor in this house had an interesting paneled ceiling that had been painted over many times. I designed a color palette and finishes for this room to create a more Victorian period atmosphere. As you can see the finish starts with a bright, apricot colored base.

My good friend Tania Seabock was available to help us, and worked some magic to create this finish using only one layer of glaze, to skillfully fashion a convincing faux bois finish.

The effect is stunning, so much so that it's hard to believe anyone would want to paint it white. It's worth the extra effort to finish these surfaces as they were intended; you get so much more out of the architecture.


click on any image to view larger

Lynne Rutter Murals & Decorative Painting

Faux Volcanic Glass Mosaic Tiles (by popular demand!)

I had a commission earlier in the year to paint some hand-made tiles to look inlaid with volcanic glass mosaic, for an Arts and Crafts period effect. So many people asked me how this was done I recorded the process for this "How-To" post!

The plain tiles are hand-formed, with a rough burgundy colored glaze on top. The surface is uneven and not very smooth, which makes it difficult to paint. So to get paint to stick to this surface, I decided to etch it. For the initial sample, the "stencil" is just masking tape.
After cutting the design out, I applied Etch-All creme over the design, waited 15 minutes, then rinsed thoroughly with water. NB- nasty stuff- wear gloves and a respirator.After rinsing I checked to see if the etching had any effect... and it sure did! In fact, I think it would be cool to etch designs into tiles like this and not paint them! Before painting, I let this dry overnight.
For the painting, I started with a layer of gesso tinted to a peach color with burnt sienna acrylic. Over that I added some layers of copper and gold metallic acrylic and a selection of interference paints. To keep the surface smooth I use a soft blending brush to soften out the paint.
It's hard to get good coverage with such transparent colors, so many layers are needed and you have to be careful not to let brushstrokes build up.

To get that volcanic glass look, I apply the interference colors in a bit of rainbow- each "piece" has several colors changing from red to green to oxide, etc
When the sample was finished, as you can see if you look very closely, the tape bled a bit during the etching process. So in the next round I used a solvent-resistant masking film from an auto-body shop.

Because the tiles are dark it was a challenge to transfer the design onto a clear film. I ended up transferring the design to the tile with bright red saral paper, then sticking the mask on them, and then cutting the design out. This whole process took only about 1 hour.

Following the steps above, the tiles were then etched.

As the tiles are not flat and the glaze has a lot of bubbles and texture, getting the masking film to stick perfectly was not possible. But on a smooth flat machine made tile, this would work like a dream. One bonus about this film- once the water dries off it, it can be re-adhered.

Now for the fun part!layers of interference and metallic acrylics blended together and softened with a black sable fitch. Important: let the paint cure hard (4 - 12 hours) and bray the edges down to break the acrylic paint film, before lifting the masking film.

A finished set of tiles: pretty, water-resistant, and unique.
This process can also be used for tiles that are already installed.

Lynne Rutter Murals & Decorative Painting

Library Children's Room Mural- in progress

The Russian Prince brings home the Firebird

This week we will be finishing a large children's room mural for the Burlingame Public Library,

Commissioned by the Burlingame Library Foundation, the murals draw inspiration from the "Golden Age of Illustration" the great storybooks of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, like Maxfield Parrish, N.C. Wyeth, Arthur Rackham.

The Burlingame Library is a charming Spanish Revival style building was designed by architect E. L. Norberg and completed in 1931.
The children's room is a large space with soaring, beamed ceilings, textured plaster walls, and a lot of odd angles. This presented a challenge as there is no one focal point to the room, nor is there a large uninterrupted space where one might normally site a mural.
So I designed a mural that uses the architecture, grates, doors, and arches, as part of the composition.

Work in progress on the north wall.

We painted the murals on canvas in my studio, then glued to the walls and in some areas, additional painting is done on site.

The Foreign Prince, being cut out prior to installation.

installing the castle mural in an arch

The Burlingame Library will "unveil" this mural during their Centennial celebration on Sunday, October 19, 2008.

Lynne Rutter Murals & Decorative Painting

Trompe l'oeil faux travertine casings

Trompe l'oeil to the rescue!
In our current project, the huge windows of the two-story living room have somewhat undersized casings.

So we enlarged them, with a faux travertine finish and some trompe l'oeil egg and dart mouldings.

<------ Samples of the faux finishes

The stone finish makes the casings feel more substantial, and the additional border helps balance the size of the large windows.





To create the travertine finish, a coat of glaze (raw umber + white) is painted over an off-white eggshell finish paint.
A piece of pleated tissue paper is laid on the wet glaze, then smoothed over with a tooth spalter, and quickly removed.
This is repeated with a lighter coloured glaze on top.
This technique gives a fairly convincing textured effect similar to a foro romano travertine limestone.



The egg-and-dart moulding is created using a stencil to block in the "shadow" areas. Additional details are painted in by hand. in this way we can make each one slightly different so they don't look too new or machine-made
Warm white highlights are added as well as some shadows on the wall around the new "casings."




Subtle trompe l'oeil "joints" in the casings help make them look more convincingly assembled from carved stone.










The finished windows have more support for their size
and lend some classic Italian atmosphere to the room.

click on any image to view larger

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 Grotesque 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 large 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

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.

Art Deco Chinoiserie

What a gorgeous, romantic bedroom, recalling silver screen Hollywood glamour, bias cut silk lingerie, martinis and cigarette holders....

Interior Designer Paula McChesney, designed this master bedroom for the 2003 Coyote Point Decorators Showcase in an historic Hillsborough mansion.
An expert colorist, Paula was understandably concerned about the astroturf green carpet, which we had to keep. The rest of the room- well, it had some problems:

Before: a long rectangular room with green carpet, white walls and a low ceiling beveled on two sides, dueling chandeliers, and not-quite symmetrically placed anything.

The solution: don't fight with the carpet- go green! The walls were painted with Benjamin Moore "Harrisburg Green" HC-132. The ceiling was painted a custom mixed green-grey and the rest of the palette was kept limited.

We paneled the room with three levels of silver moulding, including each corner, and a picture rail which settled the question 'where does the ceiling start?' The moulding was gilt with aluminum leaf in advance at my studio.

For the insets of the panels I painted Chinoiserie murals, using restrained doses of brilliant color. The panels focus attention into the center of each wall, creating the illusion of symmetry, and balancing the architecture. And it was also just darn pretty.

Paula furnished the room all in ivory, like a splendid Jen Harlow gown.

After the showcase ended, the paneling and the murals were installed in one of our client's homes.

I've been collaborating with Paula for over 12 years now. I think this was one of our most challenging and successful rooms.

room photo by David Duncan Livingston

Lynne Rutter Murals & Decorative Painting

Marin Landscape mural in progress

gouache maquette of mural: a valley view in Marin, with Mt. Tamalpais in the background...

Here's a work in progress at the Valencia St. showroom of Janet Moyer Landscaping.
It been a challenging project to deal with the space, the changing light from the various tinted windows, and the rough stucco texture on the wall, the heat of the afternoon sun--
but I got to work in a pleasant space surrounded by plants, with a burbling water feature full of friendly goldfish, wafts of coffee aroma drifting in all day, courtesy of the Ritual Coffee Roasters just across the street.

Before: the space was painted a blue/gray with some clouds up high:


I recommended the room be painted with a brighter, sky blue, (Benjamin Moore #1642 cape blue) and to paint the overhang to make it less obtrusive. In my maquette, I scaled the painting to add depth to the space and keep the majority of the painting closer to eye level, and let the rest of the room be the "sky". The mural will serve as a backdrop for the landscape design. Just the color change made a huge difference.



After drawing out the composition using sidewalk chalk I started painting. The surface is really rough, so taking a tip from my friend Jennifer Ewing, I wet the wall using a squirt bottle first. I also used a good deal of acrylic retarder in my paints, so I could blend some areas. In general I am using the texture to my advantage, to do a lot of dry-brushing using large scenic fitches, and keep a soft, atmospheric look.



This mural will be completed tomorrow...

How to paint a white kitchen floor

October 27, 2004
San Francisco Chronicle
Lynne solves a Design Dilemma - how to deal with a white kitchen floor. Think painting that white vinyl is an easy cheap option? Think again.

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

Chinoiserie in Progress

The Chinoiserie powder room, which I designed for the 25th Anniversary of the San Francisco Decorator Showcase, featured in the San Francisco Chronicle
"Show time: Hopes, dreams... "
by Angelica Pence