Want to give a painting that antique look? Ornella Muth can help. The Ridgewood-based painter-restorer knows just how to use glazes and oil stains to create a distinguished, timeworn appearance. But don’t be misled by the work of time.
“People think great artists of the past used dull colors, but that’s not true,” says Muth, 64, a longtime Ridgewood resident. “Mostly they used bright colors that over time have become dull.”
That’s why, when Muth paints one of her own expressive murals, there’s nothing dull about it. Her work is lively and mood-brightening. For a bathroom in the home of designer Tess Giuliani she painted a watery-looking floor that resembles a koi pond. And her mural on the wall of the Ridgewood Public Library children’s room features frogs, butterflies and a smiling baby raccoon.
This talented pro spends about 30 percent of her time restoring art, furniture and antiques. (Right now she’s working on a 1780 urn that’s bound for a customer in Florida.) The rest of the time she creates new art—using oils, acrylics, watercolors and sometimes combinations of these—and works with interior designers to enliven homes with special touches.
You can’t look up Muth’s website because she doesn’t have one. She doesn’t do shows and she doesn’t advertise. “I know I should be more concerned with publicity,” she confesses. “But people just call.” Those people—her clients—have included actors Jennifer Lopez and Aidan Quinn, Bloomingdale’s and Le Parker Meridien hotel.
Muth grew up in Naples, Italy, where her parents noticed her fondness for drawing animals and directed her—in the early-specialization practice of the local schools—toward the fine arts. She went on to study at the
Accademia di Belle Arti in Naples and then, after arriving in the U.S. in 1971, at New York’s School of Visual Arts and the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn. At Pratt she met her husband, the impressionist painter John Muth. (The two have three adult children and three grandchildren, two in Ridgewood and one in South Carolina.)
“Enjoy art and enjoy your life,” advises Muth. “And don’t be afraid of color.”
She believes a homeowner should “choose something that makes you happy” around which to build a room’s design. Don’t worry about what you’re supposed to appreciate. And don’t overdo.
“If you have a very interesting piece as a focal point, you don’t want to overcrowd it with a million other things,” she says.
In Muth’s double life as an artist and a restorer, each role nourishes the other. When restoring a piece, she says, “I get myself into the mind-set of the artist who produced it and the materials available to him or her at the time. It’s technical and passionate at the same time.”
Sometimes, while restoring an old work, she’ll make a sudden discovery. “I’ll see something and go, ‘Aha! That’s why he did that.’ It’s very exciting.”
In both of her roles, this talented New Jerseyan wants the excitement to go on and on. “I just want to continue doing what I’m doing,” she says. “Forever!”