OLD FRIEND, NEW LOOK; ARTWORKS GET REVAMPED `FRAME'.

Byline: John Welsh Staff Writer

The once-stuffy Norton Simon Museum is ready to show off its $6.5 million face lift this weekend. The architectural refinements have made it a prettier place, brighter and more relaxing.

As the museum prepared to welcome visitors to a week-long arts festival that began Saturday, we made a visit to see how the place feels. Is it friendlier? Visually speaking, very much so. Galleries are brighter, illuminated by skylights rather than fluorescent lighting.

Gone: Cold, glaring white interior walls.

Here: Walls are painted in various warm, earthy tones. One room's walls are reminiscent of an eggplant, but don't ask what color it is because it doesn't exist. It was created by a woman who mixed colors as she went through the rooms, and this particular color was the result for the wall that displays Giovanni Battista Tiepolo's ``Triumph of Virtue and Nobility Over Ignorance.''

Sit and absorb the warm color scheme. Sitting down, in fact, is much more pleasant now.

Gone: Those frigid benches of chrome and black leather cushions.

Here: Low, flat circles of white oak, about the size of the merry-go-round at the neighborhood park. No, they don't spin, but they're fun to look at and comfortable to linger on.

The circular seats and skylights give the feeling of continuous flow. Walking around in circles is considered counterproductive, but sitting on a circle under a circle has a way of making you feel as if you were at the epicenter of things. The perfect spot to admire the emotional and joyful coloring of, for example, Peter Paul Rubens' ``St. Ignatius Loyola.''

This plank style of furniture and sculpture bases came from designer Philippe B. Oates, who likes architectural clarity. Does it feel more clear and pure in here? Longtime visitors to this museum are sure to think so.

Gone: The dark wood parquet floor.

Here: Cool earth-tone tile, which complements the oak circle seating.

Gone: The endless stream of rounded walls.

Here:Individual viewing rooms, grouped by period and country. These intimate spaces give small works such as Eugene Boudin's 1880 ``The Beach at Trouville'' better presentability. The painting doesn't get lost in the Picasso-van Gogh shuffle.

Take a stroll outside.

Gone: The staid concrete pool and fountain.

Here: A garden of romance. It's enough to inspire a guy to get down on one knee and propose matrimony. OK, maybe that's going too far. Still, Martha Stewart-wannabes will totally dig the pond's floral action, color-coordinated from yellows to blues to whites. Young oaks have generously been planted around. And the sculptures such as Henry Moore's ``King and Queen'' look less severe and more at ease along a new walking path.

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PHOTO Sara Campbell, director of art at the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena, with some of Edgar Degas' bronze sculptures. The artworks stand out in new surroundings since the museum's renovation.

Keith Birmingham/Staff Photographer