I'll Show You Mine, If You Show Me Yours [Part I]

Wiley Purkey

Well, there's been such a huge response that I'm going to be making this into a series of posts. I'm getting palpitations thinking about all the money I could blow on the books I don't have here. 

Artist Wiley Purkey submitted this great selection. The period in American Art around the 1920s is fascinating to me. Artists reacted in different ways to the mechanization of Industry. Disenchanted by the industrialization of America, the likes of Edward Hopper captured the sense of urban isolation felt by so many. An intensely private man, and a lifelong celibate, he painted this America from the inside. The Regionalists, on the other hand, represented an artistic belief that rural America and back-to-basics labor off the land could replace urbanization and the factory-line. Illustrators Howard Pyle, and his student N.C. Wyeth, espoused a similar (called Brandywine) Romanticism of New England. Burchfield portrayed similarly heightened visions of the American landscape, turning his back on the urban world of his old friend Hopper. Andrew Wyeth was called a 'Regionalist' by his detractors, but he painted a "Pennsylvania [that] seems to groom itself with a cold gray tongue" [source]. This was not quite the Romantic regionalism of his contemporaries. Wyeth's was darker, more private. A rural version of Hopper's urbanity. Impressionists in Winter is, in my opinion, the best of Impressionist art. When the artist's palette is reduced to almost nothing, there's a reliance on composition and value that is almost Japanese at times. Not surprising then to see a copy of Whistler's beautiful Etchings here too.

Book Links: 

The Regionalists, by Nancy Heller

Charles Burchfield

Impressionists in Winter

Andrew Wyeth

James Montgomery Flagg
Maxfield Parrish

Theresa Cheek, of Art's The Answer!

Art's The Answer! is the fantastic blog written by Theresa Cheek, who clearly has a passion for the decorative arts, and for sharing all she comes across. Konemann does a great job of bringing out large format, lavishly photographed, and reasonably priced books on architecture and ornamentation. This is just a tiny selection of Theresa's vast collection on a huge variety of subjects. Be sure to check out her blog. And just peeking in on the far right is a book that's very popular with my West Coast friends, called Ca'toga. It's about the Dali-meets-Baroque-meets-Antiquity estate of Venetian artist Carlo Machiori. I've yet to come across a book dedicated solely to the painted surfaces of Versailles, but I'm sure it's out there. Until then, I love to browse through books such as Splendors of Versailles, for snippets of Oudry's landscapes and Fontenay's flowers and vases. Incredible stuff.

The St. Laurent book is a rare glimpse into the decor stylings of one of the 20th Century's very best designers. Jacques Grange features heavily in the selections, and though the lavishness of the homes becomes makes me feel a bit claustrophobic after a while [I want to run off and live in Wyeth's cabin by the end of the book], it's well worth the investment.

Koneman titles

Ca'toga
The Private World of Yves St. Laurent & Pierre Bergé
Splendors of Versailles

Karen

The 1920s once again putting on a strong show, this time from a European design perspective. Karen of Chicago's Des Travaux sent us this great shot, showing some of the stalwart classics we all know and love, along with some real treasures. Jansen Furniture is a great book about the powerhouse Paris-based design company, who's ebony and ivory geometrical inlay doors are a real treat. I narrowly missed the opportunity to create replicas of those doors once. Jean Dunand is also a master interior designer, and perhaps the greatest lacquer artist of the Art Deco period. I've downloaded any image of his incredible standing screens that I can get my hands on. Paul Poiret is the creator of the most beautiful dresses ever made. Click the link and you'll see what I mean. It's tragic that he was ruined completely by WWI and made bankrupt. As someone who'd backed myself into a rarified corner of decorative painting, I'm all too aware that tough times reveal the precariousness of this business. Elkins, on the other hand, thrived, and by the end of her illustrious career had created a huge number of interiors for the West Coast glitterati. And what I wouldn't give for that copy of Antonio Basoli's stunning designs.

Jansen Furniture

Jean Dunand

Poiret (Rizzoli)

Frances Elkins

Antonio Basoli

Early American Decoration

Chinoiserie (Phaidon)

Art Instruction books that I see on a lot of shelves (including my own):

The Art of Faux (P. Finkelstein)

Handbook of Painted Decoration (Y. Guegan)

Okay, gotta go. Keep sending them in! I'll upload more shots when I have a chance.

Irish Folk Furniture

I could have just posted the link on Facebook, but I'm dedicating a blogpost to it instead. You won't regret it. Sometimes it's nice to be reminded that there is an inherent human desire to build and decorate, simply.

This Irish short film by Tony O Donoghue (which just won the prize for Best Animated Short at Sundance 2013) is totally charming, and though as an Irishman I find subtitles of the brogue a little distracting, it's a lovely reminder that since we crawled out from the muck humans have made aesthetic choices about everyday objects, and that the roots of art are in gnarled knuckles and mindful living,

American Primitive Wood Graining

"The Printseller's Window'" Walter Goodman 1883

Nineteenth Century Tall Grass Magicians (so called because they'd camp in the tall grass on the outskirts of town) with names like Willard the Wizard were basically drifters plying sleight of hand for a quick buck. They'd blow into small American towns and perform sideshows and magic acts until the townspeople got bored and then they'd move on, disappearing like ghosts.

All sorts of artisans, from painters and photographers to woodworkers and doctors (for wasn't medicine more of an "Art" than a "Science" back then?) were doing much the same. Folk Artists would cobble together a living by painting portraits, shop signs, murals, wood-graining - anything they could get. 

Even Walter Goodman, whose trompe l'oeil masterpiece "The Printseller's Window" is pictured above, spent rootless years "undertaking interior painting, illuminating ceilings, fabricating life-size advertising 'Indians' for merchants, painting theatrical scenery and making up stage actors."

James Millard, photographer and artist, outside his studio in Wigan, circa 1895. [source]

Some stayed in Europe and managed to open stores. The photo (above) of Millard - proud as Punch and open for business in swanky new digs - as a "Painter in all it's Branches" and Photographer of "Machinery, Buildings & Animals", illustrates this perfectly. Plenty of others headed to America and took to the roads in droves, traveling from town to town in an endless search for work. Their mostly anonymous efforts kept the art of decorative painting alive, and created a new style known as American Primitive.

Laurel Farm outside of Pawling, New York

I was thrilled to come across some of their original handiwork in a recent stay at beautiful Laurel Farm outside Pawling, New York. The main dining room, with it's large open fireplace and brick oven, was a focal point of the old farmhouse and as such would typically receive the most elaborate decoration. In this case, an unknown painter covered all wooden surfaces in a primitive faux oak grain, painted in one pass.

Original wood-graining in the dining room. The bottle of Pilsner was a recent addition by me.

The original farmhouse dates from 1815, but has been expanded and renovated since then. Fortunately, the current owners are keenly aware of it's history and chose to preserve as many of the original features as possible, including the wonderful wood-graining on display here.

According to 'Vignettes of Patterson Past' (The Patterson Historical Society, 2007), the farmhouse was used at one point as a camp for girls.

"The camp was to be named Camp Genevieve Brady in honor of its donor. It would provide a taste of farm life for city girls. An eight room house and lakefront cabin stand on the property and there are plans to erect a recreation hall and seven units to accommodate 200 girls."

The owners used to bring the girl's luggage up from the train station for their two week stay, and give them hayrides with his tractor. 

"Residents remember scout sunrise ceremonies held as the sun rose above the eastern hills and red buses filled with campers going up and down the road into the late 1980s."

For a more detailed account of the tools and techniques of wood graining, as well as a how-to video on faux oak, check out this link to recent post on this blog.

Free Video Demo: Faux Cerused Oak

The following is an in-depth demonstration with video and images, designed to help you learn the traditional method of painting faux oak, generally considered the most difficult wood-grain to simulate in paint. I made about an hour of footage following along as I explained on-the-job faux cerused (or limed)  oak. There are some things that I glanced over or skipped entirely, but hey; it's free. So no complaints.

I tend towards more subtle effects personally, as far as wood-graining. If you scroll way down to the bottom for a finished shot, you'll see what I mean. Your owns style will develop naturally, and with practice.

The introductory photo above shows my painted faux cerused oak (top left), the real sample (bottom left) that I was asked to match, and some custom tools I cut from linoleum to assist me in the graining.

A selection of brushes and combs that I use for graining

Step 1: Setting up, and Mixing your Glaze




The first video is a quick rundown of my recipe for this faux finish. I don't go in to detail about color mixing here, as I'm assuming some knowledge on your part, but you get the basic setup. Mixing colors is an art that takes a long time to learn. There is plenty of info on palette choices by artists for different techniques in the literature and online. As a great starting point, I recommend Parry's "Graining and Marbling" (1949), and Finkelstein's "The Art of Faux" (1997).

As you can see in the above photo, I keep sample cards for each job. This is very important. The card on the left shows each step, staggered down the page in taped-off strips, right up to the finished spattering step. The card on the right has notes and separated color swatches of my colors. These are not the colors from the cerused oak job, by the way.

Parry on Limed, or Cerused, Oak:

"Lime, whether applied accidentally or deliberately, remains in the pores of the timber, and also influences the general colouring according to the extent or period of saturation, the state of the time, and the age of the oak. the result being a universal darkening of the figuring and lightening of open pores.

We must draw a sharp line between the genuine limed oak and limed oak effects obtained by the use of oil-bound distemper. The latter has no darkening effect on the figure, but rather the reverse. It imparts, particularly in the case of new oak, a soft bleached appearance."

Step 2: Laying in the Pores




Flogging with the horse-hair brush is the proper method for laying in a ground layer of pores, simulating the open cells of sawn hardwood. The traditional setup would be to use a reversible medium such as gouache or beer glaze, but I went straight for oil. 

"Of the several methods used for the reproduction of this wood the oil colour process is by far the most popular with present-day grainers. Work carried out in this medium is under complete control from start to finish, and there is no possibility of accidental effect creeping in and spoiling the appearance." [Parry]

Of course with oil, and in the event of failure, the whole thing can be easily washed off with a clean rag and white spirit, and the work recommenced. A job not possible in acrylic, and difficult in gouache unless you first seal each layer with shellac.

You do have to be careful to always adhere to the "fat over lean" rule regarding layers of oil paint. In other words; your base layer should always have less linseed oil than the layer above. In the case of multiple layers, increase the amount of oil as you move up.

In the video, I stretch the glaze with a spalter, then flog my glaze from the bottom to the top, and left to right (on open panels), paying attention to the direction of the wood. Keep your brush clean, and wipe it often on a rag. You can re-flog the wet glaze layer as many times as you like, but each time you go back over it with the flogger it will reduce the size of your pores. In the case of oak, the pores are very open so I only flogged once. 

A quick word at the start regarding all those dirty rags: Dispose of them carefully! With all the linseed oil floating around, you can easily start a fire. 

Step 3: Graining 



Once the pore layer has dried, we are ready for the figure graining. In the video above, you can see the heart- and straight-grain being laid in, and my method for doing it. 

I go over it in the video, so I won't repeat myself here. Instead, I'll quote heavily from Parry's text, which you should definitely read because he has some added points that I don't cover.

Don't make this stuff up. Graining as a craft has a long history, and there is a very distinct look to natural grain. There's nothing worse than "wood-grainy effect". Do a Google search on oak grain, or better yet; visit your local museum and photograph old English furniture. It's guaranteed to have the best natural examples of oak grain. Buy old books, and practice.

Source: Parry

Parry On Oak Heartwood (or 'Sapwood')

"Although many examples are similar to ash, there are certain characteristics which are only to be found in heart of oak. These differences must be grasped before they can be freely exploited by the grainer. The 'oak sap' - as it is frequently, and erroneously, called shows considerably more ruggedness and variety of shape. The ends or outer edges of the concentric elliptical curves are sharply spiked, widely varied in thickness, and, as if in a final effort to break loose, the ends assume the most fantastic twists and turns, no two being exactly alike."

Source: Armstrong

"The heartwood is mainly employed in situations where it would normally be used by the wood-worker, i.e., for cross rails of doors or other work secondary in importance to the choicer quartered oak paneling. If the grained work is to appear natural, it should never give the impression of being 'centered'. This can so easily be avoided; indeed, where short lengths of timber are concerned it is better to omit the central curve and display the more interesting features of the wood.

A word of caution becomes necessary at this stage: be careful when graining the more intricate end shapes, as these, if overdeveloped. will upset the balance of the whole composition. It is not easy to lay down any hard-and-fast rule, but we would strongly urge all beginners to keep the extreme widths of such parts noticeably narrower than the points from which they are developed. By this means we are able to maintain the characteristic tapering formation which is common to most woods."

Source: Parry

"For the wiping out of heart grain we fold a double thickness of clean rag over the veining horn. gather the loose ends, and hold firmly together with the other hand.

This is a two-handed job and although one may at first feel extremely awkward when sketching the pattern with these unfamiliar implements, it will not be long before some measure of control is acquired.

An expert grainer continues to wipe out with the right hand. white frequently giving a sharp putt with the left in order to maintain a clean working edge, all without cessation of work.

Cleanliness and sharpness of definition are important factors which cannot be obtained except by the constant changing and tautness of the rag which covers the veining tool."

Source: Armstrong

"Many grainers use the thumb-nail and are quite convinced as to its superiority in all types of wiped-out figuring. It can, however, become a painful operation after several days of continuous work, and in any  case it less hygienic than the method recommended above.

The handiest veining horns are those about 100 mm in length. These are already shaped; round at one end, fairly square at the other; and it is the square edge which gives the greater variety of shapes."

Source: Parry

"In wiping out the hearts it is advisable to use the tool at the same angle as one would use a flat fitch, i.e., with the square end parallel to the direction of the grain. The long straight lines are wiped out with the angle nearest the direction followed, and by maintaining the firmest pressure at this point, we can, when forming the elliptical ends of curves, produce the required thickness of line and at the same time leave the outer edge sharp and the inner edge fairly soft."

Step 4: More Graining

 

This video has annotations and music, which might be annoying, but whatever.

Parry On Combing

"Combing provides a simple method for the portrayal of coarse grain, particularly for oak and pitch pine. An examination of the plainer parts of these woods will reveal some interesting differences; pitch pine exhibits a certain boldness and continuity of line with fairly even balance between light and dark areas; oak is characterised by its vastly different ratio of lights and darks, the latter - which are actually broken line effects produced by the pores - occupy something like one-fifth to one-tenth of the width of the lighter parts. It will therefore be evident that each requires its own particular combs and technique.

Rubber combs may be cut from waste pieces of linoleum, rubber or leather or other material of stout quality. These can be rectangular in form and of sizes varying from 50 mm by 75 mm upwards. Teeth are formed by cutting deep grooves of the  required width on all four edges, but this must not be attempted until each edge has been accurately squared and straightened up: this latter point is important, as the comb will not wipe out cleanly unless the edge is maintained in a sharp and square condition.

When forming the teeth, due regard must be paid to the effect desired. In pine, for example, the notches and teeth are of equal width; in oak, the grooves are extremely narrow and the teeth are comparatively wide. In both cases it is desirable to make at least one comb with teeth on the several edges so graduated in width as to reproduce that natural coarse to fine variation in the graining."

Parry On Mottling

"Apply the glaze colors with a clean "rubbing-in" brush and reserve the mottler or cutter for its own special job of removing ribbon-like highlights or large areas interspersed with darker shades. If stronger tones are required, these can be applied with the fitch, but the whole work must be done expeditiously, to allow time for softening.

Do not overdo the mottling, but seek inspiration from the natural wood, and it will soon be evident that light and shade are most pronounced in those parts of the grain which twist and curl away from the main direction."

Step 5: Silver-Graining

Parry on the silver-graining of oak

"The lines indicating the silver grain - popularly described as the clashes or dapples - are not just segments of one continuous line, each following the next in single file. There is, of course, a common sense of direction, but the ends of the dapples will be found to overlap like so many isolated roof tiles, and it is this feature which must be continually observed even though the lines curve and change direction. Notice also the steep pitch of the slope, a positive advantage when twisting and curling the run or flow of the grain."

The combination of wavy combing and wiping out
Source: Armstrong

Armstrong's Cyclopedia of Painting has a great article (free online) on faux oak, with the illustration above demonstrating the method for wiping out the silver-grain. You can clearly see where a narrow steel comb is first dragged though the glaze (on the left side), and a wider comb is then struck vertically through the waves. This simulates the smallest silver-grain. As the silver-grain gets larger, moving to the right, the background combing becomes vertical, and a rag is used to wipe out the silver-grain.

Source: Parry

Step 6: Spattering and Check-Rolling

On Spattering

"(An) impression may be obtained by 'spattering' the work with colour which is brushed against and through the teeth of an ordinary comb. The effect will be more or less pronounced according to the consistency of the colour and the distance between the comb and the surface treated. It is usual to supplement this method by an immediate light dragging action with the badger softener in one direction to pull the specks of color into elongated pore marks."

On Check Rolling:

"May be employed at the grainer's discretion when it is desired to accentuate the pores; otherwise it is unnecessary. The roller will behave equally well with an oil or a water medium. 

The roller is fed with color from a wide mottler or brush which must rest lightly upon the upper edges of the serrated discs. The roller is moved forwards in the direction of the grain, leaving the pore-marks clearly defined. Too much pressure with the brush has the effect of removing color and leaving the discs clean. If color is too thin, the result will show an ugly series of blobs. Yet another case where success depends entirely upon practice."

Well, for better or worse, here's how it turned out

Sutton Place, New York City, in Architectural Digest

This is an old one I did that appeared in the pages of Architectural Digest (July 1997). It was one of my very favorite jobs for a number of reasons. The designer I worked with, Chic Wilson, was amazing and one of the nicest people I've ever met, the client was a real gentleman, and of course the property ... well, you'll just have to take a look.

The paint finishes were all traditional oil stipples and striés to complement the classical theme of the residence. Balancing my way out on a plank perched four floors above the main spiral staircase was a toe-curler, but it was nice to be working with friends and we all had a great time.

Besides glazing a bunch of rooms, I also designed and hand-painted the headboards in the bedrooms with French arabesque ornament in subtle blues and yellows.

Art Nouveau Screen

"There is something terribly morbid in the modern sympathy with pain. One should sympathize with the color, the beauty, the joy of life. The less said about life's sores the better. "

Oscar Wilde

Modular Ornament, past and future...

 This gorgeous ceiling was created with en feuille printed papers, made by an unknown Parisian manufacturer around 1780. Une feuille de papier literally means a sheet, or piece of paper, and in this context means that the entire design was created by cutting the design from individual sheets of block-printed paper.

The dark and light grounds, the borders of flowers and fruits, the medallions and even the figure of Diana in her chariot were all cut out separately and pasted on the ceiling to create this wonderful image.

This method of creating custom, one-off installations was the best way at the time for clients and designers to bridge the gap between the bespoke mural and the printed image.

Print Rooms, as they became known, were a highly individual way of decorating walls in the eighteenth century. It seems to have been a trend limited in large part to Ireland and England. The charming and whimsical room at Castletown House in Ireland, above, is the work of the lady of the house; fifteen year old bride, Lady Louisa Connolly. That she took great pleasure in her design is evident in the balanced design of octagons, ovals, circles and squares, all embellished with garlands and bows for a fanciful effect.

These days, photocopies and clip art are substituted for the original mezzotints of old. 

But why stop at cutting up scraps of paper?

Along with my business partner Mark, we saw that there was room for much improvement and advancement of the technique. I firmly believe that the artisans of a few centuries ago would have absolutely loved the digital revolution. The means they used were simply a reflection of the limit of the technology they had available at the time, nothing more.

So we developed the idea of modular designs created entirely on computer, then printed out in large sheets as custom installations. Why bother painting 60 rosettes on a frieze around a room when you can paint a single one, scan it into the computer, then print out rolls and rolls of the stuff? I mean; they're all supposed to be identical anyway, right? 

I started developing my own library of hand-painted shapes. These were little individual sections of ornament, painted in black and white, that I then scanned into the computer and colored and jigsawed together at will on my screen. Anyone interested in those early experiments can check out this blog post on the topic.

Instead of the traditional 'cut-and-paste' technique of the Print Rooms, where the jigsawing of images was done by hand and on-site, we did all the jigsawing of our artwork directly on the computer screen. When we liked what we saw, we simply printed it out on rolls up to five feet wide, and pasted it onto the wall.

The experiment was working! 

We decided to take it all a step further; to create artwork entirely on the computer, without any other tool whatsoever. Scanning hundreds of sheets of veneer, we quickly amassed an incredible library of wood textures. Then, using computer software we drew out our designs in the same way any artisan would lay out a design for marquetry: in simple back-and-white line drawings. These drawings were then 'colored' on the computer using our wood texture library, and custom printed onto sheets of Class A fire-retardant wallcovering. 

In the image above, you can see the 'before and after' of the room.

When we got there, every surface was primed white. We started by hand-painting all the raised moldings in traditional faux-bois. This was because our printed sheets of paper would only adhere to flat surfaces. Then we simply pasted our custom printed papers into the panels, and along the stiles and rails to create this stunning look.

This image shows the incredible authenticity of the effect. This is not a photograph: It is a computer rendered design, imitating wood inlay. The wood textures, colors, even the blemishes and worm-holes, are all added in layers to create the effect of marquetry. This piece is then printed out onto any substrate (including plain maple veneer) and applied to your project. Make sense?

We feel as though we are just at the tip of the iceberg. There is so much more we can be doing to push Decorative Arts into the new century. I really hope this might serve as some small inspiration to those artists out there looking for new ways to rejuvenate a (let's face it) pretty antiquated field. 

It's natural, when new technology comes along, to use it to simply re-create the style that came before. But what would happen if we were not limited by staid historic mimicry? What would it even look like if we took this new technology, this digital evolution, and cranked up the ambition to 11?