Evans & Brown murals commissioned worldwide

When they were invited to create custom murals for seven ceiling domes in the Atlantis Hotel in Dubai back in 2005, Mark Evans and Charley Brown of the San Francisco fine decorative art studio Evans & Brown knew what wouldn't work.

"Depictions of human figures aren't allowed" in Islamic art, Evans says. Instead, the duo took cues from a trove of gold jewelry, ornaments and coins found in the former region of Bactria in northern Afghanistan in 1978, as well as seashells, gemstones and the sun and moon, to create ceiling domes that Brown, the firm's creative director, characterizes as "Versace on steroids." Evans, president of Evans & Brown, says, "At Evans & Brown, fabulous is a technical term."

The atelier of Evans & Brown has been turning out murals for residences and commercial enterprises for more than 25 years from its studio in Potrero Hill. While the studio has installations in Europe, Asia and the Middle East, some of Evans & Brown's finest work can be seen right at home in the Bay Area, from the fire curtain of the Orpheum Theatre to the ceiling of the James C. Hormel Gay & Lesbian Center in the San Francisco Public Library to residences throughout the city.

Brown, a Southern California native, studied art at California College of the Arts in Oakland and met early success as a fine art painter. But he was making his living as a commercial illustrator when he met Evans in 1977. Evans had grown up in Washington, D.C., where he spent hours at the city's museums and galleries as a young man.

"Paintings became my friends," Evans says. "When we're in Washington, I still go back to say 'hi' to certain paintings."

Evans had degrees in art history and graphic design, but by the early 1980s found himself stymied by a lack of creativity in his corporate work.

The couple traveled extensively in Europe and gained an appreciation for the trompe l'oeil (French for "deceive the eye") techniques they saw used on scaffolding and buildings. They began using those methods to transform plain surfaces in their own home to look as though they were made of marble or wood. A friend, renowned designer Paul Wiseman, hired them for their first residential project in 1984.

"The timing was good," says Evans of their initial foray into fine decorative murals. "No one had Charley's skills, or his exacting period sensitivity."

That came into play as the married couple was invited to create paintings for period rooms, matching a design with the historical detail of a residence or room. While saying that his dream commission would be to paint the ceiling of the San Francisco Opera House, Evans admits a preference for more contemporary spaces. "It gives us more a chance to spread our wings, artistically speaking," he says.

Generally it is a designer who approaches the team first, and at a sit-down meeting with the designer and client, Evans and Brown try to get a feel both for the clients' interests and the designer's vision.

"It's a fine decorative art," says Brown of their work. "You have to balance your idea with the designer's aesthetics." The couple then work together to generate a few alternatives; Evans says, "Ninety percent of the time our first idea is our best." Then it's Brown's turn to create a maquette, a scale model of the mural done in gouache, to win the client's approval.

A core group of three painting assistants - Sally Dannels, Bill Plumb and Jeff Guthmiller - has been with them for more than seven years, and the atelier hires as many as 15 additional artists as necessary to complete commissions. The crew at Evans & Brown is nothing if not versatile, called on to paint a Pompeian fresco one day and a California plein air scene the next.

These days Evans & Brown undertakes three to four projects each year, about half residential and half commercial. They also design a line of vinyl wall coverings for Koroseal Studios and have just begun collaborating with Hunter Douglas on a line of fabrics.

In the case of the Atlantis Hotel, it took three years to paint murals for all seven domes, as well as companion borders and murals, onto canvas. Each mural was then cut into 75 to 350 segments, rolled up and transported to Dubai, where glue was applied to the back of each piece and the mural was hung like wallpaper. Dannels was there in case touch-up work needed to be done. "But it had been measured so carefully, we really didn't have much to do," she says.

Evans says he and Brown feel blessed to live in a region where people support the arts, even in a troubled economy. He adds, "I love providing a place where artists can actually paint and do what they love to do."

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This article appeared on page E - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle