by Diane Capuano, executive editor Achieving San Francisco Artist Lynne Rutter strives Perfection to create the perfect In Any artwork for every room Setting San Francisco-based artist Lynne Rutter n the perfect decorative arts pro- ject, there is a symbiotic relation- ship between the art and the room. The art comes alive when ren- Idered in the room, and the room achieves its full visual potential thanks to the presence of the art. Lynne Rutter understands this and seeks to bring the room and her art together into a harmonious, aestheti- cally pleasing oneness. “The artwork and the room need each other,” the San Francisco-based artist says. “A perfect example of this is the Gallery of Maps in the Vatican (which features some of the world’s most impressive fresco paintings set majestically into a 400- foot long barrel-vaulted ceiling). It’s one of my favorite rooms.” Lynne Rutter created a hand-painted ceiling design for a 900-square-foot project Lynne’s desire to create the perfect at the Paris Casino Resort in Las Vegas, Nev. Photo by Marcia Stuermer finish for every room is what drives her as a mural artist and decorative detailed architectural ornamentation. and interior designer to the services painter. “I get my inspiration from Her work encompasses a full range that she provides a client. the room I am designing,” she says. of murals, trompe l’oeil effects, chi- In her illustrious and varied career, “My work is very-site specific.” noiserie, cloudscapes, gilding, his- Lynne has had the opportunity to As the owner of her own boutique toric ornament as well as faux and paint in a variety of spaces, ranging atelier, Lynne specializes in custom decorative finishes. In recent years, from a major restoration project at the fine-art murals as well as hand- she has added the roles or colorist St. Francis of Assisi Church in Sacra- SPRING2O1O TheFAUXFinisher 7 mento, Calif., to a hand-painted ceil- toric ornament. “I love to con- ing design for the Paris Casino Resort jure up another time or place,” in Las Vegas, Nev. She has designed she says. “Most historic orna- and painted ornamental borders for a ment is borrowed from some- variety of clients and has created mu- where else, but I redesign it for rals based on her interpretations of each space to make it work. classic paintings from Vermeer, Applying a historic technique Tiepolo, Chardin and others. She uses to even the most minimal or a wide range of materials to accom- modern space can yield beau- plish this work—everything from tiful and au courant results.” house paints and theatrical acrylics to Lynne also enjoys doing casein paints, Japan enamels and fine restoration projects. “There’s art oils. a great sense of fulfillment in While Lynne does a lot of contem- recreating something that porary interiors, her specialty is peri- was lost,” she says. od design. She enjoys the prospect of In addition, Lynne has done working in modern interiors but giv- projects for a number of his- ing them a period look, whether it’s a toric buildings, using her Renaissance-style ceiling or an his- knowledge of period design to Detail of the restored ceiling of St Francis of Assisi Church, Sacramento, Calif. create the perfect complement to the setting. She’s comfortable in virtually any style of design and architecture. “Victorian, Edwardian, Arts & Crafts, Beaux Arts—these are the dominant architectural styles in the Bay Area, and I’ve done work in them all,” she reports. “I’ve always been a fan of grand interior design.” It was this interest that prompted Lynne to consider a career in architec- ture from a fairly early age. “As a kid, I was drawn to math and physics and geeky stuff like that, but I also had an interest in art,” she recalls. “Since high school, I did murals and scenic art for theater. I thought architecture would Part of the 9,000-square-foot ceiling of the St Francis of Assisi Church, Sacramento, combine these things.” Calif. Restored by Tom Ciesla and Associates, with Lynne Rutter as manager and So, Lynne applied and was accept- painter. Photo by David Papas ed as a student at the prestigious Col- 8 SPRING2O1O TheFAUXFinisher lege of Environmental Design at the University of California-Berkeley. Eventually, however, her love of art won out, and she graduated with a de- gree in fine arts. After graduation, she roamed around Europe for a while, living on very little money and staying in in- expensive hotels, but having the in- valuable experience of seeing great artwork as she traveled from place to place. “It was the ’80s,” she says. “One could more easily do that sort of thing. I traveled all around until I eventually ran out of money and had to come home.” Upon returning, she got a job as a set painter for the San Francisco Opera. “I was happily painting sets without even realizing that there was such as a profession in the U.S. as the decorative arts,” she reports. After leaving that job, she had the opportunity to apprentice with some very innovative and groundbreaking artists. She also spent four years as an artisan and studio manager for Evans and Brown Co. Inc., where she coor- dinated the production of large-scale commercial mural work. Among the artists she worked with were Roberta Ahrens, one of Northern This project involved a 860-square-foot hexagonal ceiling ornamented with hand- California’s most renowned decora- painted borders and gold-leaf stars. Ornament is based on work found in tive painters, and also Larry Boyce, the Church of Santa Croce, Florence. Acrylic on canvas. Photo by David Papas who gained notoriety as a bicycle- traveling artist who brought his artis- tic vision to restoration projects in California and other Western states. “I worked with Larry for a couple years before his death and was his last pro- tégé,” Lynne reports. Through Larry, Lynne met another artist, Tom Ciesla. In partnership with Tom, she worked on a massive restora- tion project including a 9,000-square- foot ceiling for the St. Francis of Assisi Church in Sacramento, Calif. This pro- ject turned out to be pivotal for Lynne and also helped in landing more work. She mailed a postcard of the ceiling to Detail of the hand-painted ornamental border. Ornament based on circa-1520s interior design firms as a way of pro- painting in the Church of Santa Croce, Florence. The colors are adjusted to work moting her abilities. “One designer with this client’s interior design. SPRING2O1O TheFAUXFinisher 9 commercial projects such as these, most of Lynne’s work is done in up- scale homes, including a number of Victorian or period revival resi- dences. And for the more modern homes in her repertoire, one of the things she enjoys creating is historic- inspired ornamentation to transform the space into another era. “Most of my clients are repeat cus- tomers,” Lynn reports. “I have some clients who’ve stayed with me for 20 years. I have one client, whom I’ve done three homes for all over the coun- try. I do a lot of work on canvas and then either go on site to do the installa- tion or have someone else install it.” Lynne prides herself on her flexi- bility and creative problem-solving for adapting to whatever it is the client has in mind. “A lot of time, the client or the designer has something in mind, but I’m often brought in be- cause they have a problem they can’t solve,” she says. “I need to work with them to find out what it is they want. Do they want formality? Do they want something grand? What do they want the room to be used for?” An example of a project that took a bit of creative problem-solving in- volved a master bathroom that pre- viously had a view of a fire escape and a brick wall. The client walled over the window and asked Lynne to create a mural in its place. Her unique solution was to create a sur- real mural rendition of “Girl with a Lynne’s hand-painted “Japanesque” mural in peach with almond blossoms and Pearl Earring” by Vermeer. accents of 12k gold leaf. The “far-too-white” marble floor tiles have been painted “It’s something to look at when with a faux finish of a different marble. walking down the hall,” Lynne ex- took that postcard with her everywhere space, and then flew back to Las Ve- plains. “You can see it, if the doors are she went,” Lynne recalls. “Years later, gas for the installation,” she report- left open, from clear across the house. she called me regarding the Paris Las ed. “Other elements, I hand-stenciled It’s not so much a decorative painting Vegas project.” on site. The project took months, but job as a fine art piece that was site- Lynne landed the casino project I was only in Las Vegas for four specific. Many would have done a before the property was even built. days. The client loved that the scaf- trompe l’oeil window with a nice view, Once there was a physical space to folding was only up one week. There but that’s not the sort of thing I do.” decorate, she flew to Las Vegas to do were also less housing and travel Lynne’s knowledge of architectur- the measuring and then flew back costs involved, so it was far more al styles has come into play in many home to create the design.