Italian Painted Ceiling: work in progress

Work in Progress at Lynne Rutter Studio

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)

ornament sketch- a first step

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.

finished panels awaiting installation

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.

Lynne Rutter Murals + Decorative Painting