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35+ Years Experience -
Society of Gilders Member -
VCA
Postgraduate -
International Clientele
Almost every commission I take on starts at a wall that will not resolve. The proportions are right, the light is good, and nothing hung there has ever held the room. I am Marcus Walkley, a gold leaf artist of 36 years, working in gold, silver and copper leaf on privately commissioned artworks for luxury homes and resorts. At Walkley Art the person you brief is the person who lays the leaf, so a commissioned piece is designed for one wall, one light and one client.
What you are actually commissioning
A commissioned artwork is different from buying one that already exists. A finished piece has to find a wall that suits it; a commission starts at the wall and is made to it. Scale, palette, texture and the way light crosses the surface are settled after I have seen the space.
The second difference is who you deal with. Every conversation about your piece is with me, from the first email to the day it goes up. Nothing is relayed through anyone else and nothing is chosen from a catalogue, so if you want to change direction three weeks in, you say it to the person making it. That is what commissioning a gold leaf artist directly buys you: the piece can still move.
My artworks portfolio shows the range: what happens on raw linen, and what silver does that gold cannot.
How a commission runs, from first email to the day it goes up
Five stages, and the first two decide almost everything.
You email or call, and I answer it myself. Then I come and look. That consultation is where a custom gilded artwork is really decided: I want to see the space, understand the scope, and hear what you, your architect or decorator are after. I travel to client sites from my Elwood studio, and I would rather stand in front of a wall than work from a photograph.
Out of the visit comes the design response, shaped to your space and brief, never pulled off a shelf. You see the direction before a single leaf is laid.
Execution is the quiet part: the leaf goes down to the agreed specification, in gold, silver or copper, with respect for the home it is happening in. Completion is rarely the end. Enough clients come back with a second piece or a second room that I no longer think of a commission as a single job.
Gold, silver and copper leaf over raw linen
The materials are not a decision made late. They are the work.
For artworks I lay pure gold, silver and copper leaf over raw linens, Chinese silks,and other mediaβs , with resins and acrylics worked through them. Why layer at all, when one application of leaf will cover a surface completely? Because a surface built up in stages holds light differently from one simply coated. Depth is what you notice from the doorway, texture what rewards you at arm’s length, and no two commissions resolve the same way. Water gilding, one of the most classical and exacting ways to lay gold leaf, sits behind all of it.
Not every commission is a framed work. Some are panels, some the wall itself, a ceiling, or a sculpture that wanted a skin of gold. Materials come from suppliers worldwide, and I guarantee no child labour in their production.
How much artistic input you need to bring
It is the question I am asked most, and a commission works at either end of the range.
Some clients arrive with a clear picture: a colour, a mood, a piece they saw years ago and never forgot. Others arrive with a wall and a feeling, and want it solved. Architects and decorators usually arrive with a scheme fully resolved, and my job is to work inside it. None of those is a wrong way to begin a gold leaf art commission.
What I need from you is an honest reaction. You do not have to know what water gilding is, or whether your room wants silver rather than gold. You have to tell me when something is not right. The design stage exists so that conversation happens before the leaf goes down, and I would much rather change course at the drawing than have you live politely with something that missed.
Lead time, scope and budget
Three questions come up in every first conversation.
Lead time follows scope, and the range is wide. A single artwork for a residence is a different proposition from an interior: at the far end of what I do, the gold foil gilding in the State Theatre at Arts Centre Melbourne ran for 10 months. You get a timeline once the piece is defined, and the date I give you is one I can hold.
Scope and complexity are the same conversation. Size alone drives very little: what matters is the surface and its condition, the access, the leaf chosen, and how much of the finish must be built by hand instead of applied. A large flat panel can be far simpler than a small carved one.
Budget I will not put a figure on here: a commissioned piece has no list price. Tell me the range you have in mind at the consultation and I will tell you plainly what is achievable. Guarantees and warranties cover both materials and workmanship.
About Walkley Art
The obsession with gold started in childhood. The training came later: a Diploma of Fine Art from Prahran Technical College, postgraduate study in Fine Art at the Victorian College of the Arts, specialist training with Jennifer Bennell at the Studio of Painted Finishes in Sydney, and membership of the Society of Gilders. Walkley Art has been my working practice for 36 years, and I oversee every commission personally.
I also teach the craft. The gilding classes I run for beginners and practising artists keep the fundamentals sharp: you cannot teach what you only half understand.
Christopher W. Norton, President EMEA of Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts, said the work was “well above our high expectations”.Β There is more on my testimonials page.
Starting a commission
Bring me the wall. Photographs help, measurements help more, but a commission begins when I stand in the room with you and hear what you want it to feel like.
Email marcus@walkleyart.com or call +61 411 622 711 to arrange a consultation.
