Decorative Art Fit for a Queen

Susan Tuz THE NEWS-TIMES

Published: 01:00 a.m., Tuesday, May 25, 2004

Ridgefield artists Nels Christianson and Eva Lee often use the techniques of the masters in creating faux finish effects and oil wall murals.

But for the murals they created for the ocean liner Queen Mary 2, they used a blend of old world techniques and modern technology, working in gold leaf and oils on glass.

"It's a special 'verre eglomise' technique: a French term, very ancient that has a precedent in that it was used in creating murals for The Normandy, a luxury liner built in the 1920s," Lee explained.

Using thin sheets of gold leaf  lifted and applied with special gilder's tools, Christianson and Lee created four paneled images in sections, representing the southern and northern hemispheres as depicted in northern mythology and Australian and African flora and fauna.

The finished panels, which grace the walls of the main entryway to the Queen Mary 2, are 66 inches high by 120 inches wide.

"It was a good technique to use," Christianson said, "as the image is actually created on the backside of the glass. The murals are such that people want to touch them, and, as created, they can be easily cleaned." --photo1L--

Christianson and Lee were contacted to create the murals by the Dutch art consulting company of Onderneming Kunst  by e-mail.

"They never sent anyone out to our studio," Christianson noted. "Commissioning the art for the ocean liner was, of course, a huge project overall, incorporating the works of hundreds of artists worldwide."

The panels were created in the couple's Ridgefield studio over a nine-month period, and a New York City-based shipping and handling company packed and shipped them to The Netherlands, where they were installed on the ship.

Christianson and Lee saw them actually in place on the Queen Mary 2 for the first time on May 18, when the ship was docked in New York harbor.

Onderneming Kunst were far from shooting in the dark when they chose Christianson Lee Studio. The couple's work has been featured in "Town Country," "House Beautiful," "Architectural Digest," and "The New York Times" among other publications.

From creating faux finishes of wood grain, marbling and fantasy murals and landscape murals, Christianson Lee Studios has developed a prominent name in the decorative art world.

Christianson studied at the prestigious Van der Kelen School of Decorative Arts in Brussels, Belgium, receiving his degree in 1986.

There he learned the techniques of the European masters, specifically in fine decorative painting and gilding.

Lee trained first at Bard College in Annandale, N.Y., and then at Hunter College in New York City. She specializes in fine art and works with Christianson, her husband, on decorative pieces such as the Queen Mary 2 murals.

The two have worked with unconventional materials, such as using beer with paint pigments added to it as a medium for murals, a trick of the masters Christianson learned in Brussels.

For the Queen Mary 2 murals, they used refined techniques, developed by them specifically for integrity and stamina of the finished pieces.

"Using gold leaf in this way is an old-world technique," Christianson said. "But the quality of metal leaf today is more pure and consistent than it was years ago, even than it was in the 1920s when it was used for The Normandy."

By using a range of gold leaf from 23 carat to 11 carat, Christianson and Lee had a full pallet of gold to silver colors to work with. A 23 carat gold leaf has a rich yellow gold color. A 19 carat gold leaf is a softer, paler yellow, and an 11 carat gold leaf appears silver.

The African and Asian panels also used a claret-colored oil paint as the background for gold leaf peacocks, elephants, koalas and platypus. All panels were then painted black on the back as a finish.

"We were e-mailed sample images of the frame that would be used in the installation, the carpeting and the light fixtures" that would be in the entryway of the ship, Lee explained.

The murals are displayed with flourish on the Queen Mary 2. Passengers enter the ship on deck 3 into a grand lobby from which a sweeping staircase goes to deck 2. That deck is visible from the entry deck. Deck 2 then has central walkways off of its main oval floorplan and Christianson and Lee's murals grace either side of the entrances to those walkways.

"It was wonderful to see the murals in place," Lee said. "We were so happy to see them."