Gold gives artist quality (4)
I believe the answer is:
aura
'quality' is the definition.
(aura is a kind of quality)
'gold gives artist' is the wordplay.
I cannot really see how this works, but
'gold' could be 'au' (Au is the chemical symbol for gold) and 'au' is located in the answer.
'artist' could be 'ra' (Royal Academician, member of Royal Academy of Arts) and 'ra' is found within the answer.
This accounts for all the letters.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for aura that I've seen before include "Distinctive atmosphere surrounding person or thing" , "Emanation - distinctive air" , "distinctive impression" , "Distinctive quality around a person or place" , "Atmosphere [ital]" .)