Novacolor Ambassador, 2026
One of the ten ambassadors Novacolor named in 2026, and one of two in the United States. The appointment is for life. Novacolor is the Italian house whose materials define the modern Venetian plaster trade.
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Kyle Railton · Plaster artist, Truckee California
Novacolor made him an ambassador. Then he won their bootcamp.
Kyle Railton has spent thirty-five years in the trades and fifteen of them in Venetian plaster. In 2026 Novacolor named him to that year's class of ten ambassadors, one of two in the United States. That May, in his first year, he won the Novacolor Ambassador Bootcamp in Venice with the highest score in the field. He is also the 2026 Best Local Artist for the Truckee and North Lake Tahoe region.
The record
The trade knows his name. The shop is in Truckee.
Novacolor appoints a handful of ambassadors a year, for life, out of every applicator in the world. Kyle is one of the ten they named in 2026, and one of two in the United States. He spends his weeks on job sites between Truckee and the lake.
Novacolor Bootcamp Winner, 2026
Three days in Venice against ambassadors from around the world. Collaborative projects, technical tests and design briefs. Kyle took the highest score in his first year as an ambassador.
Novacolor USA →Best Local Artist, 2026
Nominated, shortlisted as a finalist, then placed first among artists across the Truckee and North Lake Tahoe region.
Best of Sierra →Five stars on Google, every review
Not one review below five stars, from the designers who specify him and the homeowners who live with the work.
Google →
What people say about Kyle
Incredible eye, incredible at his craft. No one does the stuff he's doing out here.
Kyle is a true artist in every sense of the word. His talent, creativity, and attention to detail are immediately evident in everything he does.
I'm lucky to have seen many projects Kyle and his crew have completed. Always impressively beautiful work.
Teaching
Novacolor flies him around the world to teach this.
Being an ambassador isn't an endorsement deal. Ambassadors teach. Kyle taught in Vancouver in 2024 and Belgium in 2025, he's in Budapest this October, and in November he runs his own five-day intensive in Truckee for six applicators flown in from wherever they are.
Venice, Italy
Three trips in 2026. Ambassador Week in February, the Ambassador Bootcamp in May, which he won, and back in June to train on wall-to-floor.
Vancouver, Canada
Teaching, 2024.
Belgium
Teaching, 2025.
Budapest, Hungary
Teaching, October 2026.
Truckee, California
Rebel Academy, November 2-6 2026. Six applicators.
His crew
He mastered it, then taught his whole crew.
Kyle trained a crew of more than twenty Venetian plaster applicators who deliver on multimillion-dollar Tahoe homes to one standard. Talent is one thing. Handing that standard to someone else and having it hold on another person's deadline is a different skill, and it's the one he teaches in Europe, in Canada, and now in Truckee.
The art
People commission him to make a piece they live with every day.
A commission starts with the room. The light in it, how you use it, what you want to feel when you walk in. Then Kyle builds it himself, start to finish: sculptural surfaces, mixed media, thick texture, made for that one space and never repeated. This is the work the Best Local Artist award is about.
Timeline
1991 Enters the trades at fourteen.
2011 Moves into Venetian plaster.
2024 Founds Rebel Venetian and opens the Truckee studio.
2026 Named a Novacolor Ambassador, one of ten that year.
2026 Wins the Novacolor Ambassador Bootcamp in Venice.
2026 Named Best Local Artist, Truckee and North Lake Tahoe.
2026 Runs the first Rebel Academy in Truckee.
Rebel Venetian is Kyle's studio.
Five stars on Google · Truckee, California