Five Castles Portraits is a by-appointment studio and gallery at 26 Park Drive, Belgrave, in the Dandenong Ranges east of Melbourne. It is where every family's experience actually happens: the first consultation, often the portrait session itself, and the design appointment where you choose your favourites and plan the artwork. Nothing is booked or decided over email or from a website gallery. You see the work, and the studio, in person first.
Why the studio works by appointment only
A working studio and gallery that is open to walk-ins ends up either half-staffed or half-empty most of the day, and neither serves the family sitting down for a consultation properly. Booking ahead means Arek's full attention is on your family for that hour, with the space set up, the artwork on the walls relevant to what you are there to see, and no one else's session competing for time. If you are wondering what a booked consultation actually involves once you arrive, the first consultation guide walks through the hour in full.
What the gallery is for
The gallery holds finished pieces on permanent display, not printed samples or a slideshow. Premium canvas wall art, Designer Portfolio Prints, Keepsake Art Albums and the framed Story Boards all display or sit exactly as they would in a family's home, at real size. That matters more than it sounds. A canvas described as 36x55" reads very differently as a number than it does standing in front of one, and a lot of a family's decision at the design appointment comes down to seeing scale and finish with their own eyes rather than guessing from a spec sheet.
The three meetings that happen here
The experience runs across three meetings, and the gallery is where two of them take place.
- The consultation. A one-hour meeting at the gallery where you see the artwork, understand the pricing, and plan the session around your family, your children's ages and their routine.
- The session. Timed around sunrise or sunset, the session itself might happen at the studio or on location nearby in the Ranges, depending on what suits your family.
- The design appointment. Within a week of the session, you are back at the gallery to view the finished images and choose favourites, then design the artwork with Arek's guidance.
Weather is often the question families ask about the second meeting, and if a session is planned on location, the wet-weather guide covers exactly how that gets handled without losing the booking.
Seeing artwork before you decide anything
The reason the gallery exists as a physical space, rather than a set of photos on a screen, is so a family can hold a decision in their hands before making it. Print quality, colour, the weight of a hand-finished frame, none of that translates well online. Walking through the gallery at the consultation means you already know what a finished piece looks and feels like well before the design appointment, so that meeting is about choosing what suits your home rather than learning what the products even are.
Seeing and holding the artwork first changes the whole decision. It stops being abstract.
Belgrave, and what it means for the work
Being based in Belgrave puts the studio inside the Dandenong Ranges rather than commuting out to it. Sherbrooke Forest, the Olinda rhododendron gardens and the open paddocks around Puffing Billy country are all close by, which means location sessions do not add travel time to a family's day, and the light at sunrise or sunset is never more than a short drive from the gallery either way. Families booking through winter sometimes ask whether the studio setting is a better bet than a location session when the weather turns colder, and the winter portraits guide goes into how that season is handled.
What to bring to a gallery visit
Nothing is required for the consultation beyond your own thinking about the family and the space you would like the finished artwork to sit in. It helps to have a sense of which wall or room you are picturing pieces in, whether that is a loungeroom, a hallway or somewhere else, since that shapes the sizes and collections Arek suggests. If you have not settled on what to wear for the session itself, that conversation happens at the same consultation, and the free family styling guide on the home page covers the basics beforehand if you want a head start.
One family at a time
The gallery is never running two consultations or two design appointments side by side. Arek works with one family at a time, which is part of why the space stays by appointment rather than open-door. It means the hour you spend there, whether you are seeing the artwork for the first time or choosing between finished pieces after your session, has his full attention and nothing else competing for it.
Booking a visit
The first step into the space is always the initial consultation, booked ahead rather than dropped into. From there, the session and the design appointment follow within the same short window, all built around your family rather than a fixed studio schedule.
Every portrait begins with a conversation at the Belgrave gallery.