能以假亂真的裝飾畫大師
When architect Andrew Skurman recently redid his Paris apartment on the Parc des Invalides, he used local talent for everything from the limestone floors to the vanilla silk draperies that frame the views of the opera, the Sacre Coeur and the Grand Palais. But when it came time to create the faux marble neo-Egyptian doorway leading into the living room, a 'major element,' Mr. Skurman decided to fly in Willem Racke, a decorative painter based in San Francisco.
建築師安德魯•史克曼(Andrew Skurman)最近在翻新其位於巴黎榮軍院公園(Parc des Invalides)的公寓時，聘請了當地的能工巧匠爲其操刀從石灰岩地板到香草色絲綢窗帷的所有東西，這些帷幔構建出了從房中欣賞歌劇院、聖心大教堂(Sacre Coeur)以及巴黎大宮(Grand Palais)景緻的畫框。不過，到了打造通向起居室的仿大理石新埃及裝飾風格的門廳這個“主要部分”時，史克曼決定請舊金山的裝飾畫畫家威廉•拉克(Willem Racke)飛過來。
'He's the best,' says Mr. Skurman, who is known among wealthy architecture aficionados for his classical designs and whose projects include a Georgian-style home in Dalian, China, and a French-style house in New Delhi.
Matthew Millman室內設計師常常請裝飾畫畫家拉克創作精細的塗飾、繪製精美的壁畫或是挑選適當深淺度的白色。“他是最棒的，”史克曼如此評價道。史克曼本人也以其古典設計在富有的建築迷中頗有知名度，其設計的項目包括中國大連一座喬治亞風格的住宅以及新德里一座法式豪宅。
Mr. Racke is the painter of choice for architects and interior designers looking to transform a room, or an entire house, by creating faux paneling where there was none, adding a faux marquetry floor or turning a powder room into a piece of pop art. His recent projects have included a graffiti-style wall in a boy's bedroom, complete with a picture of the boy on his skateboard. 'When we do murals I like adding something whimsical and personal,' Mr. Racke says. Projects can cost anywhere from $2,000 to upward of $100,000 for something that may take several years.
在意欲改造一個房間或是一整棟房子的建築師與室內設計師看來，拉克是絕佳的裝飾畫畫家之選。他可以創作出似有實無的假鑲板，加上一層假的鑲嵌細工地板或是將盥洗室改造成一件波普藝術品。他近期的作品包括一個男孩臥室中的塗鴉風格 壁，其中有一幅這個男孩踩在自己的滑板上的圖畫。拉克說：“畫壁畫時，我喜歡加上一些古靈精怪和個性化的東西。”其作品收費不等，起步爲2,000美元，可能要耗費數年時間的設計作品的要價則高達100,000美元。
His showroom in San Francisco's trendy Mission District is filled with hundreds of samples ranging from Venetian plaster to trompe l'oeil to Chinoiserie (Mr. Racke set up shop in the Mission long before the arrival of artisanal chocolate shops and the tech elite). Among his latest favorites is a stenciled Venetian plaster that his studio did in which the background is matte and the stencil is done in a high gloss, giving the work texture and depth. There is also a section of a coffered Moroccan-style ceiling where the centerpiece of each stenciled coffer is a painting done on one side of glass and then turned over, so the image is seen in reverse. It took eight artists working for Mr. Racke one month to create the 30-foot-by-30-foot ceiling in a Santa Barbara home.
拉克的展廳位處舊金山時尚的教會區(Mission District)，廳內擺滿了數百種展示品，有威尼斯灰泥塗料、錯視畫，還有中式風格的產品。（早在手工巧克力商店與科技精英入駐教會區之前，拉克就已經在那兒開店了。）在他最近比較中意的作品中，有一件是其工作室打造的鏤空的威尼斯灰泥產品，其底面爲啞光，鏤空圖案則採用了高光處理，使其具有質感和深邃感。他還爲聖巴巴拉(Santa Barbara)的一座房子設計了摩洛哥風格的方格天花板，每個鏤空方格的中心圖案是一幅作於玻璃一面的圖案，然後再把玻璃翻轉過來，所以看到的圖像與原來是相反的。拉克手底下的八名畫家花了一個月時間才弄完這部分長寬均爲30英尺（約合九米）的天花板。
Metal-leaf ceilings are always popular, says Mr. Racke, though the trend has moved from gold to silver. 'I'm big on doing things on ceilings because I think they're often overlooked,' he says. For walls, he is seeing more contemporary looks using graphic designs, lacquer and high-gloss finishes. Preparing walls for a high-gloss finish is an exacting job, he warns, as 'it will show every imperfection.'
拉克還說，金屬箔天花板一直都受到青睞，儘管現在的潮流已從金箔轉向銀箔。他說：“我非常喜愛在天花板上做文章，因爲我覺得它們常常被忽視了。”至於 壁的設計，他認爲採用平面造型設計、漆面和高光塗飾的更加現代的樣式將成爲潮流。不過，他提醒道，創作高光塗飾的 壁是一項精密的工作，因爲它會使每一處缺陷都顯露無疑。
Designer Jay Jeffers, who has known Mr. Racke for 16 years, also sees the trend moving toward simpler finishes, though he agrees they aren't necessarily simple to execute. Mr. Racke will soon be flying to New York, where Mr. Jeffers is working on an apartment and wants a red lacquer dining room. The process will require hand-buffing six to eight coats of paint.
設計師傑伊•傑弗斯(Jay Jeffers)認識拉克已有16年時間，他也認爲潮流將轉向更簡單的飾面，儘管他也贊同這並不代表它們操作起來肯定很簡單。拉克馬上將飛往紐約，因爲傑弗斯正在那兒設計一套公寓，他想要打造一個紅色漆面的餐廳。這道工序需要手工拋光六至八層塗料。
Mr. Jeffers has just finished his own home in St. Helena and chose all-white walls, except for a gray-plaster powder room. 'I haven't had a white wall in my own home in 16 years,' he says. 'I wanted something light and easy, and it is a different direction for me.' Mr. Racke says he has nothing against all-white walls but warns that most whites are too cold. 'All-white is OK as long as it is an actual white like Benjamin Moore 956 or 925,' he says. He hand-mixes custom colors for his clients and keeps books filled with the recipes so he can match the paint later.
傑弗斯自己在聖海倫娜(St. Helena)的房子剛剛完工，除了一個灰色灰泥的盥洗室之外，他選擇了把 壁全部刷成白色。他說：“我自己的房子有16年沒有刷過白 了，我想要一些明亮簡單的東西，它對我來說是一個不同的方向。”拉克稱，他對全白的 壁沒有任何意見，但他也提醒道大多數白色都過於冷冰冰了。他指出：“只要它是像本傑明•摩爾(Benjamin Moore)品牌956號或925號那樣的真實的白色，那麼 壁全部刷成白色也沒問題。”他會爲客戶手工調配定製的顏色，在工作簿上記滿了製法以便在日後調出匹配的塗料。
Mr. Racke didn't set out to be a decorative artist. He studied graphic design in his native New Zealand before deciding to take time off to travel. He ended up in New York, where, by chance, he got a job with a decorative artist. In 1989, he opened his own studio in San Francisco, and 23 years later, he has a team of four artists who have done work from Silicon Valley to Southeast Asia.
拉克並不是一開始就打算成爲裝飾畫畫家，他最初在本國新西蘭學習平面設計，後來他決定抽出一段時間來旅行。最終他到了紐約，在那兒偶然得到了一份裝飾畫畫家的工作。1989年，他在舊金山開設了自己的工作室。23年之後，他擁有了一個由四名畫家組成的團隊，他們在從硅谷至東南亞的各地工作。
Mr. Racke is now working on his own San Francisco home, having recently bought a loft near his studio. He's keeping the existing concrete walls, but for the kitchen cabinets and the walls he's adding to create the master bedroom, he has decided on cerused oak in a driftwood color (cerused refers to a centuries-old process in which the paint or stain fills the grain of the wood, giving it depth). He'll wire-brush the oak, stain it and then glaze it. For the floors, he's using reclaimed oak. 'It's all about texture and light,' he says of his new abode.
拉克最近在其舊金山工作室的附近買了一所loft，目前他正在設計這所房子。他保留了房子原有的混凝土 壁，但對於廚房的櫥櫃以及他加建的用以打造主臥的 壁，他決定採用漂流木顏色的鉛白橡木（鉛白是指採用一種有幾個世紀曆史的工藝讓油漆或着色劑填滿木材的紋理，使之更具深度感。）他會用鋼絲刷刷橡木，給其着色然後再上光。至於地板，他則採用了回收的橡木。他在談到自己的新居時說道：“一切無非都是質感和光澤。”
