Tell me your idea
Even if the idea is still vague, we work on it together. Write to me on WhatsApp or by email, I reply within 48 hours.
Siena
Mural Artist in Siena
In Siena, Giulia Dal Bon paints murals with a brush, in houses, guest houses, workshops, restaurants and shops. Trained at the Brera Academy, she paints on site, from 150 € per square metre. Free quote within 48 hours, two sketches included: you approve the design before Giulia paints.
Contact Giulia
Tell me your idea, and I will be glad to reply.
The price of a mural in Siena
| Simple motif or line drawingFine lines for flowers, patterns, silhouettes or figures… | 150 €/sqm |
|---|---|
| Fully painted subjectColours and shadows for landscapes, portraits or scenes… | 250 €/sqm |
| Trompe-l’oeil or ceilingThe wall opens onto a false window, a sky on the ceiling or an entire landscape… | 350 €/sqm |
| Exterior facade: if needed, scaffolding is added to the quote. | |
Free quote within 48h
The quote starts from the surface and the technique, and spells out what comes on top: interior or exterior, the condition of the wall, the height, scaffolding if needed, the timing.
Where to start?
When you contact me about a mural in Siena, here is what happens next.
A photo of the wall with the sketch
Send me a photo of the wall and I draw a sketch straight onto your photo. You tell me what you think. The first two sketches are free.
The quote
Once the sketch is approved, I send you the quote and we set the date together.
I paint the wall
I come and paint at your place in Siena, by brush, and the place stays open while I work.
Murals in Siena
The floor of Siena Cathedral is made of fifty-six panels of inlaid marble, drawn between the fourteenth and the nineteenth centuries from cartoons by artists almost all Sienese: Sassetta, Domenico di Bartolo, Matteo di Giovanni, Beccafumi, and the Umbrian Pinturicchio. Beccafumi worked on the cartoons for the presbytery from September 1521 to February 1547 and invented a sfumato in marble, playing the different colours of the stones to make light and shadow. Vasari called it the greatest and most magnificent floor ever made: five centuries of work on a single surface. Giulia travels easily to paint: you send her a photo of the wall and she draws the sketch straight onto it, then you shape the idea together.
What Giulia brings to Siena. Siena is the city that treated a surface as a work of art for five centuries running. Giulia works in the same direction, by brush and made to measure, on the wall of a home, a hotel or a shop. She loves what the artists here have done. Giulia is a painter, trained at the Brera Academy of Fine Arts in Milan. She exhibits her paintings in art galleries and also paints on walls. Corriere della Sera, Domus and Sky Arte have written about her work, and her mural of over twenty metres dedicated to Gaber and Jannacci can be seen in Milan. The wall is her favourite canvas because it truly becomes part of a place, a unique work made to tell your story.
What Giulia brings to Siena
In 1492 Archbishop Francesco Piccolomini Todeschini, the future Pius III, had the Piccolomini Library built in the Duomo to keep the books of his uncle, Pope Pius II. Between 1502 and 1507 Pinturicchio and his workshop, with the young Raphael among the assistants, frescoed it from floor to ceiling: ten scenes from the life of Pius II, taken from his Commentarii, with the gold still intact.
Siena is therefore a city where a library was painted like a story in episodes, in five years. Giulia Dal Bon paints there with a brush, in the flats of the centre, the hotels, the restaurants and the halls of the contrade, using odourless acrylic and two sketches included. From 150 € per sqm, free quote within 48 hours.
Giulia also paints live in Siena. For a festival, an opening, a concert or a wedding, she sets up her easel and the painting takes shape in front of your guests, signed and taken home the same evening. From 950 € for a wedding, from 400 € for a performance. For a wedding, everything is on the live wedding painting in the Val d’Orcia page.
Your questions, before commissioning
A photo of the wall, its approximate dimensions and the idea you have in mind are enough to receive a quote.
How much does a mural cost in Siena?
Giulia Dal Bon’s price is per square metre: 150 € for a line drawing or a simple motif, 250 € for a fully painted subject, 350 € for trompe-l’oeil or a ceiling. A small mural in a bedroom costs less than a facade that needs preparation and scaffolding. The quote is free: see all prices.
How does it work to have a wall painted in Siena?
Write to Giulia Dal Bon on WhatsApp or by email, even if the idea is still vague: she replies within 48 hours. Send her a photo of the wall to be painted, she draws a sketch straight onto your photo, you tell her what you think, and the first two sketches are free. Once the sketch is approved, she sends you the quote, from 150 € per sqm in Siena, and sets the date with you. She then comes and paints the mural at your place in Siena, by brush, and the place stays open while she works.
What does a mural quote in Siena cover?
The square-metre price Giulia Dal Bon quotes includes the paint and materials, the first two sketches and the protective varnish as a finish. While she paints, you tell her what you think, and she adjusts. Added to the quote, when needed, are the scaffolding for a facade and travel costs, agreed together. The quote is free and arrives within 48 hours; a deposit of about 100 € for materials confirms the date, and the balance is settled at the end.
I’d like a mural or a painting on a wall of my home in Siena, who should I contact?
Giulia Dal Bon, a painter trained at the Brera Academy of Fine Arts in Milan. She paints murals by brush in homes, bedrooms, bathrooms, on terraces, pool walls and facades, and travels in Siena as she does across Europe. Send her a photo of the wall, its approximate dimensions and your idea, however loose: she replies within 48 hours with a quote and a first proposal. The first two sketches are free.
Can I see a design before commissioning the mural?
Always. You receive a sketch set on a photo of your own wall, to scale, together with the quote. The first two sketches are free: Giulia shows the work in progress, you give your opinion, and she adjusts. You confirm when you are ready.
Will a mural damage the wall?
The paint goes onto the plaster already in place. In most cases a dusting down is all that is needed before starting. If the surface has cracks or rising damp, Giulia points it out before quoting and proposes the preparation required. Indoors she uses an odourless acrylic: a child’s bedroom in use or a restaurant that stays open can both be painted. An acrylic mural can later be painted over like any wall paint, if you change your mind in ten years.
When is the best time to paint a mural in Siena?
All year round. Indoors the odourless acrylic lets the room stay in use while she works, in January as in July. Outdoors she needs a dry wall and a mild temperature. Giulia sets the date with you when she quotes, within 48 hours, and gives plenty of notice if the schedule moves.
Can a view of Siena be painted on a wall?
Yes. Three or four landmarks are enough to recognise it. The shell-shaped Piazza del Campo and the Torre del Mangia, the black and white bands of the Duomo, and the brick roofs running down to the hills. Giulia Dal Bon paints the scene with a brush, at the scale of the wall: 150 € per sqm as a line drawing, 250 € fully painted. Free quote within 48 hours.
What subject works well for a mural in Siena?
In the brick houses of the centre and the shops around the contrade, a botanical motif, a landscape of the crete or an architectural trompe l’oeil sit well with the town’s warm tones. Everything is painted with a brush, in odourless acrylic. If you are still choosing the subject of your mural in Siena, the guide What subject to choose for a mural reviews the options room by room.
What is the difference between a hand-painted mural and spray-painted graffiti?
Spray can and brush give two different results. The brush works in layers, which makes gradients, fine detail and trompe l’oeil possible: that is why a mural can be looked at like a painting. In Siena, Giulia Dal Bon paints by hand, in odourless acrylic indoors and quartz paint outdoors. A painting made by hand shows, and it stands out all the more today.
What do you call an artist who paints on walls?
A muralist, or a decorative painter; the word fresco painter exists too, for the old technique. In Siena, that is the work of Giulia Dal Bon: trained at the Brera Academy of Fine Arts in Milan, she exhibits her paintings in art galleries and paints commissioned murals with a brush. People also search for it as mural painting, wall mural or hand-painted wall. Send her a photo of your wall: free quote within 48 hours.
Does a mural hold up outdoors in Siena?
Yes, with proper surface preparation and quartz paint, made for exterior walls. In Siena the old brick and the hill’s temperature swings call for care with the surface: it is assessed before painting. Giulia paints outdoors all year round, on a dry wall and in mild weather: she checks the forecast with you and sets the date.
Do I need permission to paint a facade in Siena?
An interior wall can be painted freely. For a facade visible from the street you generally need the owner’s or the building’s agreement, and a declaration to the local authority: Siena’s historic centre is UNESCO-listed and largely protected. Giulia sets out the steps before starting.
How long does it take to paint a mural?
It depends on the surface, the level of detail and how easy the wall is to reach. Giulia gives the timing with the quote, within 48 hours, and gives plenty of notice if the schedule moves. The place keeps running while she works: the acrylic is odourless.
How long does a mural last?
An acrylic mural by Giulia Dal Bon lasts a lifetime indoors: the paint becomes part of the plaster and lives as long as the wall. Outdoors, quartz paint is made for facades, and an anti-salt or anti-pollution varnish extends it further. And if one day you want a change, it can be painted over like any wall paint.
Other spaces
The other places Giulia paints, her portfolio and the towns nearby.
Homes and villas
A bedroom, a hallway, a staircase: the walls you look at every day.
A mural for your home
Restaurants, hotels, and boutiques
A painted wall gives the room its character, and the place stays open while she works.
A mural for your restaurant
Other cities
From Siena, the mural can open toward these places.
Tuscany · Florence · Volterra · Milan · Forte dei Marmi
The mural of over 20 metres for Gaber and Jannacci, in Milan, in the press
Giulia Dal Bon, trained at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera, Milan.
Where Giulia works in Siena
In Siena, in a house, a villa, a second home or a flat, she paints on an interior wall : the living room, the children’s bedroom and the bedroom. She paints the kitchen, the bathroom, the entrance, the hallway and the stairwell just as readily. The ceiling is painted too: that is the €350 per sqm band, with trompe-l’oeil. Outside, on the exterior facade, she works in quartz paint. In a rented place, she paints on a mobile panel that you take with you.
In a restaurant, a pizzeria, a trattoria, a café or a bar in Siena, the room stays open while she paints: the acrylic is odourless. For a boutique and a shop, she paints the window, the shutter and the back wall. In a hotel and a B&B, the painted wall gives each room its own subject. In a hair salon and a spa, she paints the wall you look at while you wait. In a medical practice and a waiting room, she paints the waiting room and the corridor leading to it. In an office and a showroom, she paints the wall the teams walk past every day.
In the historic centre, in Camollia, in San Martino, in the Terzo di Città or in Fontebranda, a photo of the wall and its dimensions are enough to start: Giulia draws the sketch straight onto it.
A wall can carry a landscape, a floral or botanical motif, lettering, a painted sign. A ceiling takes a sky. A perspective trompe-l’oeil opens a window or a corridor on a solid wall. Giulia also paints figures and animals, and reproduces a work on request.
Possible subjects in Siena: the brick roofs running down to the hills, the shell-shaped Piazza del Campo and the Torre del Mangia, the black and white bands of the Duomo. Alongside these, a trompe-l’oeil window, a botanical motif or a painted sky remain possible.
People ask for different things and mean the same one: a mural, a wall mural, an artistic painting on a wall. Others say wall decoration, decorative painting, mural decoration. Others again a trompe-l’oeil, a hand-painted wall, a drawing on a wall, or a painting made directly on the wall. It is one craft, that of a mural artist, a muralist, a decorative painter, and Giulia does it with a brush in Siena.
Siena has been UNESCO-listed since 1995, with its cathedral floor of fifty-six marble panels drawn by its own painters.
Giulia also travels to Monteriggioni, Castelnuovo Berardenga, Sovicille, Monteroni d’Arbia, Asciano, Colle di Val d’Elsa, Poggibonsi and Montalcino.
Where the mural can find its place
- In an apartment or a house, Giulia paints the living room, the bedroom, the hallway, the entrance and the ceiling. From 150 € per sqm, free quote within 48h.
- For a restaurant, a trattoria, a shop or an office, Giulia paints the dining room wall, the shop window, the sign and the reception. Free quote within 48h.
- Giulia also travels to San Gimignano, Monteriggioni, Montepulciano and Pienza.