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.
建筑师安德鲁•史克曼(Andrew Skurman)最近在翻新其位于巴黎荣军院公园(Parc des Invalides)的公寓时，聘请了当地的能工巧匠为其操刀从石灰岩地板到香草色丝绸窗帷的所有东西，这些帷幔构建出了从房中欣赏歌剧院、圣心大教堂(Sacre Coeur)以及巴黎大宫(Grand Palais)景致的画框。不过，到了打造通向起居室的仿大理石新埃及装饰风格的门厅这个“主要部分”时，史克曼决定请旧金山的装饰画画家威廉•拉克(Willem Racke)飞过来。
'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室内设计师常常请装饰画画家拉克创作精细的涂饰、绘制精美的壁画或是挑选适当深浅度的白色。“他是最棒的，”史克曼如此评价道。史克曼本人也以其古典设计在富有的建筑迷中颇有知名度，其设计的项目包括中国大连一座乔治亚风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.
在意欲改造一个房间或是一整栋房子的建筑师与室内设计师看来，拉克是绝佳的装饰画画家之选。他可以创作出似有实无的假镶板，加上一层假的镶嵌细工地板或是将盥洗室改造成一件波普艺术品。他近期的作品包括一个男孩卧室中的涂鸦风格 壁，其中有一幅这个男孩踩在自己的滑板上的图画。拉克说：“画壁画时，我喜欢加上一些古灵精怪和个性化的东西。”其作品收费不等，起步为2,000美元，可能要耗费数年时间的设计作品的要价则高达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.
拉克的展厅位处旧金山时尚的教会区(Mission District)，厅内摆满了数百种展示品，有威尼斯灰泥涂料、错视画，还有中式风格的产品。（早在手工巧克力商店与科技精英入驻教会区之前，拉克就已经在那儿开店了。）在他最近比较中意的作品中，有一件是其工作室打造的镂空的威尼斯灰泥产品，其底面为哑光，镂空图案则采用了高光处理，使其具有质感和深邃感。他还为圣巴巴拉(Santa Barbara)的一座房子设计了摩洛哥风格的方格天花板，每个镂空方格的中心图案是一幅作于玻璃一面的图案，然后再把玻璃翻转过来，所以看到的图像与原来是相反的。拉克手底下的八名画家花了一个月时间才弄完这部分长宽均为30英尺（约合九米）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.'
拉克还说，金属箔天花板一直都受到青睐，尽管现在的潮流已从金箔转向银箔。他说：“我非常喜爱在天花板上做文章，因为我觉得它们常常被忽视了。”至于 壁的设计，他认为采用平面造型设计、漆面和高光涂饰的更加现代的样式将成为潮流。不过，他提醒道，创作高光涂饰的 壁是一项精密的工作，因为它会使每一处缺陷都显露无疑。
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.
设计师杰伊•杰弗斯(Jay Jeffers)认识拉克已有16年时间，他也认为潮流将转向更简单的饰面，尽管他也赞同这并不代表它们操作起来肯定很简单。拉克马上将飞往纽约，因为杰弗斯正在那儿设计一套公寓，他想要打造一个红色漆面的餐厅。这道工序需要手工抛光六至八层涂料。
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.
杰弗斯自己在圣海伦娜(St. Helena)的房子刚刚完工，除了一个灰色灰泥的盥洗室之外，他选择了把 壁全部刷成白色。他说：“我自己的房子有16年没有刷过白 了，我想要一些明亮简单的东西，它对我来说是一个不同的方向。”拉克称，他对全白的 壁没有任何意见，但他也提醒道大多数白色都过于冷冰冰了。他指出：“只要它是像本杰明•摩尔(Benjamin Moore)品牌956号或925号那样的真实的白色，那么 壁全部刷成白色也没问题。”他会为客户手工调配定制的颜色，在工作簿上记满了制法以便在日后调出匹配的涂料。
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.
拉克并不是一开始就打算成为装饰画画家，他最初在本国新西兰学习平面设计，后来他决定抽出一段时间来旅行。最终他到了纽约，在那儿偶然得到了一份装饰画画家的工作。1989年，他在旧金山开设了自己的工作室。23年之后，他拥有了一个由四名画家组成的团队，他们在从硅谷至东南亚的各地工作。
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.
拉克最近在其旧金山工作室的附近买了一所loft，目前他正在设计这所房子。他保留了房子原有的混凝土 壁，但对于厨房的橱柜以及他加建的用以打造主卧的 壁，他决定采用漂流木颜色的铅白橡木（铅白是指采用一种有几个世纪历史的工艺让油漆或着色剂填满木材的纹理，使之更具深度感。）他会用钢丝刷刷橡木，给其着色然后再上光。至于地板，他则采用了回收的橡木。他在谈到自己的新居时说道：“一切无非都是质感和光泽。”