Public & Sacred · San Gabriel, California
San Gabriel Mission Playhouse
Restoring the gilded grille, carved ornament and polychrome ceiling of one of the San Gabriel Valley’s great auditorium interiors.
Los Angeles · Established 1995Murals, decorative painting &
Murals, decorative painting &
historic art restoration in Los Angeles
For three decades Evan LeGrande Wilson has painted, gilded and conserved surfaces in Southern California’s theatres, churches, civic landmarks and private houses.
The studio
A painter’s hand, a conservator’s discipline.
Le Grande Studios works where fine art meets architecture — mural commissions and hand-painted ornament on one side, historic paint investigation and conservation on the other.
That combination is unusual, and it matters. A studio that only decorates will happily paint over the evidence of what a building used to be. A studio that only conserves can rarely make new work sit convincingly beside the old. Doing both means a room can be returned to its original scheme, extended sympathetically, or given something entirely new — by the same hands, to the same standard.
Our work is in the Los Angeles Mormon Temple, the San Gabriel Mission Playhouse, Los Angeles City Hall, Forest Lawn and parish churches across the county, alongside private residences from Beverly Hills to Palos Verdes.
About Evan Wilson- 30+Years in practice
- 7Disciplines under one roof
- 20+Landmark & institutional clients
- 4Continents exhibited
What we do
Seven disciplines, one studio
Each is a distinct craft with its own materials, tools and failure modes. Follow any of them for method, examples and what a commission involves.
- 01
Mural Painting
Hand-painted interior and exterior murals for homes, churches, theatres and civic buildings across Los Angeles.
- 02
Historic Restoration & Art Conservation
Paint investigation, historic colour designation, consolidation and in-painting for landmark interiors.
- 03
Gold Leaf & Gilding
Water and oil gilding in gold, silver and composition leaf — ceilings, ornament, signage and furniture.
- 04
Venetian Plaster & Lime Finishes
Burnished lime plaster, marmorino and polished stucco applied by hand in multiple troweled coats.
- 05
Trompe l'Oeil
Painted architecture, false windows, niches and vistas that read as real from the intended viewing distance.
- 06
Decorative Painting, Chinoiserie & Grisaille
Hand-painted ornament, stencilled borders, chinoiserie panels and tonal grisaille for period interiors.
- 07
Faux Finishes, Faux Bois & Faux Marble
Faux marble, faux bois graining, metallic patinas and custom wood treatments matched to existing material.
Selected projects
All projectsRooms we have worked in
Private Residence · Southern California
Quinn House
A trompe l'oeil window opened into a solid wall, with a Mediterranean vista, painted mosaic banding and glazed plaster surrounds.
Public & Sacred · Los Angeles County, California
Holy Spirit Parish
A complete decorative scheme for the nave: stencilled borders, painted reredos surrounds, gilded medallions and the Stations of the Cross.
Conservation
Before we paint anything, we find out what was there.
Historic restoration begins with evidence, not opinion. Exposure windows are cut through the paint history in a controlled grid, each layer recorded, matched and photographed in place. Only then does a colour get specified.
Interventions are kept reversible and confined to areas of genuine loss, so original material stays legible as original material. It is slower than repainting. It is the only approach that leaves a landmark building with its history intact.
…preservation engages the past in a conversation with the present over a mutual concern for the future.— William MurtaghRestoration & conservation
Selected clients & institutions
- Roy Disney III
- Barry Bonds
- John Fogerty
- Brandy
- Paul Merage
- Los Angeles City Hall
- Los Angeles Mormon Temple
- San Gabriel Mission Playhouse
- Hotel Casa Del Mar
- Western Justice Center
- WDI (Tokyo)
- Basilica Lombartus (Netherlands)
- St. Andrew's Catholic Church
- Holy Spirit Catholic Church
Fine art
View the collectionPaintings from the studio
Journal
All articlesNotes on materials & method
- Commissioning
How much does a custom mural cost?
The honest answer to the question every client asks first — what drives mural pricing, where the money actually goes, and how to read a quote.
- Technique
What is trompe l'oeil painting?
The term means 'deceive the eye'. What actually creates the deception is not draughtsmanship — it is shadow, viewpoint and restraint.
- Materials
Venetian plaster vs. regular plaster: what is the difference?
They are not the same material doing the same job. One is a wall substrate; the other is a finish with two thousand years of history behind it.
Evan LeGrande Wilson
“I think the ideal space must contain elements of magic, serenity, sorcery and mystery.”
— Luis Barragán, and the brief we work to
Biography, exhibitions & awardsStart a project
Tell us about the room.
Every commission begins with a conversation about the space, the light and what it needs to do. Consultation and site assessment are available for projects across Greater Los Angeles.