Lost in Translation

I am accompanying the maestro to Japan, where he will be attending the Tokyo Performing Arts Market this week.
I just love this brochure designed to present Erling's work to the Japanese. "Libertine" is here translated as "freethinker."

Joy Prevails Over Apathy

Every year some team of experts decides what the "color of the year" is going to be, and for 2009, it's a certain color of yellow. I had already been working on this panel of chinoiserie using a bright Imperial Yellow field when I heard this "news."
Interesting how these "fashions" in wallpaper, trends in paint, styles and colors, come and go, and come back again. The myth here is that anything is ever really all that new.

My painting above has a trompe l'oeil illusion, of brightly colored chinoiserie paper being torn up from its predecessor, the monochromatic neoclassical stencil pattern. Don't get me wrong, I love neoclassical design, but these days I feel a need for color. I find myself attracted not to just one color, but the combination of them, and I come back to this bright yellow every so often because it makes me happy. I felt, every moment I worked on this painting, basking in yellow, the sensation of pure joy!

So to me this painting is about the triumph of joy. The joy of color dominating the innocuous, monochromatic style; the joy of vision over nostalgia; of radiating rather than retreating.

Lynne Rutter Murals + Decorative Painting

Arts and Crafts Flowering Frieze

Some months ago I completed work in this unique project for the Malibu home of the illustrious Ms. Barbra Streisand. The design of the library was inspired by the "Ultimate Bungalows" built by notable Arts and Crafts architects, Greene and Greene.
I was commissioned to paint a frieze for the new library, recreated after the famous Thorsen House in Berkeley, California.

original Thorsen House rose branch frieze, painted by Charles Greene

The rose branches were originally painted by Charles Greene in 1910, on sailcloth, in a somewhat oriental style. These have, over time, discolored from smoke and aging varnish.

Ms. Streisand endeavored to include historically accurate detail in creating this room, and the library has much of the same style of joinery that make up the signature Greene and Greene woodwork. I custom-painted the Thorsen-style frieze using the same style and materials as the original,, and meticulously trimmed the the canvas panels to fit into these mouldings. Some additional painting was done on site to finesse the composition.

The addition of the floral border in the room strikes just the right balance. It's hard to describe, but the effect is stunning.

* While I was allowed to photograph my work, I was asked not to show pictures of this spectacular room itself, as it is to be published in a book the Ms. Streisand is writing.

The Thorsen House is owned and maintained by the fraternity Sigma Phi, whose members take the best possible care of their home and give spontaneous tours whenever asked. They are trying to raise the estimated $10 million needed to restore this landmark.
Please visit their website and make a donation!

frieze is in the glossary!

Lynne Rutter Murals and Decorative Painting

Victorian Woodgraining

This splendid Victorian entry door set with leaded glass windows
was finished with a 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 could be a more 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!  Of course these days we can improve these old finishes if desired, but 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.

repaired areas of missing moulding were matched to the original  wood-grained finish

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,  creating a burl effect in the insets of some reproduction Victorian 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.

San Francisco Victorian-  the paneled ceiling being painted with a simple faux bois effect

My good friend Tani Seabock gave me a hand to work some magic on this ceiling, using a formula I designed that requires only one layer of glaze to skillfully fashion a convincing faux bois finish. This was done not only to preserve the budget but  to emulate  the original graining style used elsewhere in the house.

a faux bois ceiling  by Lynne Rutter Studio,    a simple finish with an outstanding effect

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 Studio

The Fabulous Peacock Parlor of Mr. Clem Labine

During our recent visit to New York, the maestro and I made a trip out to Brooklyn, to visit Mr. Clem Labine at his historic Park Slope brownstone.

Portrait of the Publisher as a Young Aesthete.

Mr. Labine is the notorious founder and former editor and publisher of the Old House Journal, Traditional Building, and Period Homes magazines, all of which sprang from his passion for preserving and improving older buildings, starting with his own spectacular manse. It's no surprise that his home boasts outstanding original as well as restored features and is decorated in high Victoriana, complete with koi pond and neoclassical statues. Clem is also a longtime Friend of Artistic License.

Clem Labine in his spectacular parlor

My favorite room is the Peacock Parlor, the formal sitting room on the grand main floor of the house, with its massive original casings and doors, high ceilings, coral walls, and crammed with art and statues. On the day we visited, an indoor bocce court (non-regulation) had been constructed on the spacious peacock feather patterned carpet. But the real story for The Ornamentalist here is the custom-painted frieze.

The hand-painted peacock frieze in Clem Labine's home in Brooklyn, NY

Unusually large at about two and a half feet high, the Peacock Frieze was designed and painted ~ 30 years ago by Austrian-trained Helmut Bucherl, ably assisted by Howard ("Howie the Grainer") Zucker, the son of a German-born decorative painter. Both artisans spent most of their professional life working for Rambusch Painting Studios of New York. The inspiration for the design was found in an old Dover Edition and embellished by Mr. Bucherl, whose Austrian roots show in the Secessionist-style elements. The ceiling has a very cool anthemion detail of stylized peacock feathers. These borders were painted using a combination of stencils, pounces, hand-shading, and gold leaf, and the entire room, including the ceiling, has been glazed. While the color are rather intense, in the intimate light of this room, they look perfectly balanced.

painted peacock and antler rosette

The peacock motif was adapted to create a four by eight foot ceiling rosette with a fabulous antler-branch spiral border and gold leaf accents which glitter above the electrified gas chandelier.

As you can see a gorgeous decorative painting job endures, like great architecture.

click on any image to view larger
anthemion is in the glossary!

Visit Clem Labine's new blog, The Preservationist

Lynne Rutter Murals + Decorative Painting