Grotesque Obsession: The Art of Carolina d'Ayala Valva

linen table runner by Carolina d'Ayala Valva for Nina's Home Artists for Textiles

recent designs from Nina's Home Artists for Textiles

For more than 20 years, Carolina d’Ayala Valva and her partner Walter Cipriani have been decorating interiors from their atelier in the historical center of Rome.  Carolina has become known as a modern-day champion of Grottesca (also called grotesque),  a style of ornament first made popular by the Renaissance artist Raphael, and literally wrote the book on the techniques and use of this historic form. Walter excels at the important and age-old techniques of scagliola, and this talented couple are highly in-demand for decorating prestigious interiors from Rome to Paris to St. Petersburg.

I met them at the Salon, an international  gathering of decorative artists who meet in a different city each year. What impressed me most wasn't just the mastery of historic techniques, but the fresh and relevant way these techniques are being used in their work.

Recently, the famous French wallpaper manufacture Zuber commissioned new wallpaper designs from each of them, which has in turn led to the creation of a new line of fabrics and accessories for interiors, cushions, lampshades, and table linens are printed on natural fibres, entirely made in Italy.

Carolina in her studio

Grottesca candelabra panel

Carolina d’Ayala Valva is also a highly skilled and sought-after teacher of painted ornament, and I have invited her to my studio in San Francisco for a week-long workshop on the art of Grottesca later this year.




Here she is interviewed for The Ornamentalist. Get to know the work of this exceptional decorative artist!

Please tell me about your education and training. How did you learn to paint like this?



I did not start my professional career as a decorative painter, but as an architect.

  Architecture was not my first choice, but an alternative to my desire to attend the Academy of Fine Arts. However, it is thanks to the long university studies that I have design discipline, which is also very useful in my work as a decorator. So in the end, I'm a self-taught.


Was there any one person or place that inspired you to become a decorative artist?



Living in Rome, surrounded by a unique artistic context in the world, inspired me deeply.  It’s especially here that I could cultivate my passion for the “Grotesque” design.

  Our Atelier (L’Artelier-Roma) was two steps from the Vatican City and, in the past, I have often had the chance to see up close the Grotesque decorations in the halls of the Vatican Museums and the loggia of Raphael, which are the first and most famous in the world. I have been able to admire the beauty, the harmony of the colors and the fast but masterful brushstrokes of the artist.

  For all this I consider myself lucky.


Over time, though I was immersed in a wonderful classical context,  I tried to develop a very personal style, both in the use of the color and in the design’s style.  I also love to try more contemporary sources of inspiration that can be anywhere in the life of every day, inserting modern elements in the classic structures.

~ Carolina d'Ayala Valva 

set of doors ornamented with  figures in a grottesca style by Carolina d'Ayala Valva

work in progress on a Grottesca element

 

Which are your favorite materials/medium for painting?  favorite brushes or tools?

My favorite technique for painting, is the egg tempera.  I also use it for painting more contemporary subjects, in fact, is my personal opinion, that the egg tempera has no equal for beauty, brilliance and color depth. The egg yolk binder gives a softness and a flexibility to the brushstroke, truly unique. The binder allows the use of pure powdered pigments, these offer the possibility of having an infinite palette, rich in nuances that gives to the work so realized, the sumptuousness of the paintings of the ancient masters, performed with the same technique.

Of great importance in the use of this type of tempera is the choice of right brush, the right brush, leads to having an elegant pictorial gesture, soft and sinuous.  I use round synthetic brushes, very flexible and highly accurate.

custom ceiling featuring Grottesche painted by Carolina d'Ayala Valva

Some of Carolina's fabric designs made into tote bags!

What's new? favorite recent projects?

I worked for years painting Grotesque decoration work on ceilings, furniture and panels for important clients in several countries.

So much work and experience led me to publish a book: "Art et Techniques de la Grotesque" (Editions Vial, 2009) and this made my work widely known around the world, encouraging also my activity as a teacher in Italy, France, Belgium and the U.S.

In 2013, as a result of the popularity of the book,  Zuber,  the famous producer of papier peint, contacted me in order to create a new collection of wallpapers inspired by my Grotesques.  And this was the impetus to start building my collection of printed digital fabrics with the brand: Nina’s Home~ Artists for Textiles.

Please tell us a bit about the process of designing for textiles. 

Each design is first painted by hand as a work of art in a single original water-colored model. Then, the quality of the digital printing process allows us to reproduce the slightest nuances and brushstroke on the fabric, preserving the charm and originality of our hand-painted model.

As mentioned above, modernity and tradition, this is the right mix today to further our art.

• Grottesca  5 day ornament class at Lynne Rutter Studio October 18-22, 2016
• Art and Techniques of Grotesque by Carolina d’Ayala Valva 

painted ceiling with modern Grottesche by Carolina d'Ayala Valva

Lynne Rutter Studio

Pascal Amblard- summer painting classes in San Francisco

It is with great excitement that I can announce that I have the honor of hosting my friend the master muralist Pascal Amblard, for a special painting workshop at Lynne Rutter Studio in San Francisco.

Tiepolo-inspired painting by Pascal Amblard

You've read more about Pascal Amblard's work here before, and hopefully bought his amazing book, Painted Homes, which explores the wide variety of his elegant work as a muralist and decorator.

A sought-after mural artist working internationally from his studio in la Haute-Savoie,  Pascal is also well known as a generous and skilled teacher.  I am thrilled to host him in my own mural studio this summer for what we have been calling the "dream class!"

October 1-6 2018      Six day Mural Master Class
This course will give those wishing to improve their mural painting skills, an opportunity to work at a grand scale,  learn mural design, drafting, and painting techniques for creating large scale works.

A preview of the type of composition we will create together ; the architecture and landscapes are borrowed from Tiepolo's frescoes in Palazzo Labbia, and the figures from his son, Giandomenico. We will use similar elements and come up with our own murals.

Pascal says:"After more than 25 years in this business I am finally organizing a "start from scratch" class.

Pascal Amblard with his demonstration mural

It is certainly the most valuable learning situation for students, and the most difficult for a teacher. Instead of starting to play a well mapped out part,  I will start improvising with you!   I know in which key we will play and what note to use or to avoid but I will be open to your ideas and suggestions. I will show you how I myself compose, mixing current and centuries-old techniques.

We will share and experience together in what is so rarely taught: how do we get from a blank piece of wall to a spectacular, harmonious and desirable mural composition.

"I will teach you the techniques I have used and refined through hundreds of murals.  As we have a lot of working space, we will do this on a grand scale.  Each person will have room to work comfortably."

This class emphasizes design and individual style as well as efficient painting techniques.

Reservation information for Mural Maser Class  here:  Mural Master Class


 Here is a rare opportunity to learn and practice in a large, light-filled, working mural studio, with one of the true masters of this art.


As of August 12, 2018  -- We have one space available.  Contact me for information about joining this masterclass

Lynne Rutter Studio

Studio Visit: Adrian Card

Harpsichord soundboard painted by Adrian Card  * 

This week I visited the studio of a great artist closer to home, the San Francisco atelier of my good friend Adrian Card.  Adrian is one of those amazing fellows who is expert at so many esoteric things I can't help but wonder if he was transported here directly from the 17th Century. Or maybe he is possessed by the ghost of some Flemish harpsichord decorator, which would of course be a good thing if you had a harpsichord needing ornamenting, as this just happens to be Adrian Card's specialty.

Flemish harpsichord with strapwork ornament painted by Adrian Card *

Adrian Card at his drafting table, designing Delft-style ornamentation for a guitar.

Adrian comes from an old Dutch-American family:   "My father's ancestors all came over here in the early 17th and 18th centuries, mostly of English and Dutch extraction. They settled in Northern New Jersey in the late 17th century after getting tired of the city life in Manhattan (New Amsterdam). My family has been in the same place ever since. My father was baptized in a church whose graveyard contains the remains of his ancestors who fought in the American Revolution - it's about 5 minutes from where my parents live now and where I grew up." 

Adrian became fluent in Dutch, which he learned by and for studying antique books on painting techniques.

A corner of Adrian Card's Studio, filled with design books and inspiring what's-its.

"I had been fascinated with 17th century Dutch painting since the 6th grade"  Adrian says, "when an art teacher (aptly named Mrs. Farber) showed us slides of some Vermeer paintings... it was like an epiphany. I got interested in how they did it, and started to learn Dutch when I realized how much had been written about technique and whatnot in Dutch, that had never been translated into English."

Reprint of De Hooge Schoole der Schilderkonst anders De Zichtbaere Wereld  by Samuel van Hoogstraeten, 1678

Not long after that Adrian painted his first harpsichord soundboard.  "Getting involved in harpsichord decoration only solidified my drive to learn Dutch."

gilt and painted ornament for the inside of a harpsichord, painted by Adrian Card

Adrian studied at the Philadelphia College of Art, and after a brief flirtation with the idea of going to the Hochschule Der Kunste in Berlin, he came to San Francisco where he earned a degree in printmaking at the San Francisco Art Institute. 
"I have long been fascinated with historic ornament. A fellow-student and friend at SFAI and I both shared a passion for ornamental borders, which was something we needed to keep to ourselves, or risk the ridicule of our neo-neo-neo-expressionist fellow students."

Historic woodblock-printed papers reproduced by Adrian Card for a harpsichord restoration.

hand carved woodblocks for printing harpsichord papers

After graduating from SFAI,  Adrian began to do some historic ornament work for a variety of applications, but when the opportunity to work for a prestigious animation company presented itself, he pursued it. He worked in animation for a number of years before returning to the world of ornament, starting his own business in 1999.

Adrian credits other harpsichord painters for helping him with his career:  "... notably Janine Johnson and Sheridan Germann, who were generous with their time and knowledge, and instrument maker Kevin Fryer, who also taught me a lot." 
His printmaking skills have been useful for creating the hand-printed papers for Flemish harpsichords, "a practice that dates back to the 1500s, when they were employed as an inexpensive way to imitate the expensive Italian custom of ebony and ivory inlay work."  

samples for the decoration of harpsichord and other furniture in Adrian Card's studio

Skills used in harpsichord decoration are also applicable to furniture and murals, and Adrian has completed a number of fantastic commissions using historic ornament of many different periods and styles.

design in progress for a harpsichord case using strapwork ornament

The soundboards of harpsichords (and other instruments) must be painted with particular water-based materials to preserve the sound of the instrument. This means making the paint from raw pigments and materials using historic recipes.

Pigment collection at Adrian Card's studio

The studio is like a walk-in Wunderkammer, filled with inspiring objects, old broken things, old working things, drawers full of designs and past work, as well as collected bits of tiles, insects, minerals and wallpapers.

Historic Avocado Green.

I met Adrian Card some years ago when he joined my guild, Artistic License.  We have since collaborated on some projects as as well as become great friends through our shared love of ornament, collecting, martinis, flea markets, books, and the search for the perfect Victorian light fixture.
During a recent meeting several kindred spirits discussed which animal's urine had the strongest ammonia content needed for making bluest Verdigris pigment.  Ok well, maybe you had to be there.

Adrian Card's studio Wunderkammer includes fluorescent rocks collected near his home town.

Now you can imagine how thrilled I am to be hosting Adrian Card at my own studio in San Francisco,  September 11-13, 2013 
for a fantastic workshop on Strapwork Ornament, 
a favorite of Flemish designers and a great trompe l'oeil device for any number of uses.

Class panel for Adrian Card's Strapwork Ornament workshop

Please have a look at more of Adrian Card fantastic work on his website:  AdrianCard.com
 

pigments, and tiny bug art

And here are some of Adrian Card's favorite influential books:

In Dutch:
De Hooge Schoole der Schilderkonst anders De Zichtbaere Wereld   (The Esteemed School of Painting or, The Visible World)   by Samuel van Hoogstraeten, 1678

Hoe Schilder Je Een Druif  (How Does One Paint a Grape)  by Karel van Mander, 1604   and yes, the title is a reference to Parrhasius

Verlichterie-Kunde of Het Regt Gebruik der Water-Verwen   (Illumination or the Right Use of Water Colors) by Willem Goeree, 1697

In English:
A Treatise Concerning the Art of Limning by Nicholas Hilliard, circa 1600

Miniatura or the Art of Limning by Edward Norgate, circa 1627

Medieval & Renaissance Treatises on the Arts of Painting, edited by Mary P. Merrifield, originally published in 1849, now available as Dover reprint




Images in this post by Lynne Rutter except * ©Adrian Card
click on images to view larger

Limner is in the glossary!  of course it is.

Lynne Rutter Murals + Decorative Painting

Ornamental Borders Workshop

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

 The bones of this ceiling design- borders!  Ceiling by Lynne Rutter in the Paris Resort Hotel and Casino, Las Vegas.

Ornamental Borders: Two Day Intensive Workshop
 in  San Francisco
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.

detail of ceiling border by Lynne Rutter

Learn each simple method and how to put them together to create more complicated designs. We'll explore how to adapt ornament for a variety of different applications in today's interiors, while you create your own set of full-sized samples in hands-on practice. 

ornamental ceiling by Lynne Rutter

 This class will be offered again soon.  Email me to be put on the mailing list for announcements.

Lynne Rutter Murals + Decorative Painting

Hartono! Batik Workshop and Exhibition

The Language of Cloth and Lynne Rutter Studio are thrilled to be hosting Javanese batik artist Hartono, visiting the U.S. for the first time, for a workshop on traditional Javanese batik technique, as well as a trunk show and sale of one-of-a-kind batik textiles.

Hartono is a talented young artist of the newest generation of batik-makers from Solo, Central Java, a center for batik-making for over 150 years. Hartono’s designs incorporate Japanese and European motifs which he blends with traditional Javanese patterns.

Saturday, October 24 from 9am - 5pm
Hands-on batik workshop
* 6 to 8 pm Reception for the Artist

Sunday October 25th from 10am to 6pm
Exhibition and Trunk Sale with batik demonstrations

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

The Saturday workshop will be an intensive one-day hands-on introduction to the basic techniques of Javanese batik making. Participants will complete their own batik creation on silk, with instruction from Hartono from start to finish.
The class is limited to 8 participants and the fee including all materials is $100.

Contact Daniel at The Language of Cloth to reserve your place: daniel@thelanguageofcloth.com
or call 415-613-9693

Lynne Rutter Murals and Decorative Painting