Distinctive quality of gold shown by artist (4)
I believe the answer is:
aura
'distinctive quality' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'gold shown by artist' is the wordplay.
'gold' becomes 'au' (Au is the chemical symbol for gold).
'shown by' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'artist' becomes 'RA' (Royal Academician, member of Royal Academy of Arts).
'au'+'ra'='AURA'
'of' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for aura that I've seen before include "Atmosphere or glow surrounding a person" , "Occult glow" , "Distinctive but intangible quality surrounding a person" , "Particular ambience" , "Indiscernible quality" .)