Mark Southgate

I was drawn to painting from a young age. Some of my earliest memories are of making small oil paintings as a child, quiet landscapes of rolling hills, stone walls, and cottages, images that felt instinctive rather than learned.

As a teenager, I stepped away from art. At the time, I was trying to avoid anything that might draw attention to difference, and painting quietly fell away. It wasn’t until much later, after moving to Ibiza, that this early impulse returned.
I first visited the island just after my 40th birthday. I was mesmerised by the light, the landscape, and the extraordinary presence of Dalt Vila. Something felt immediately familiar. The surroundings echoed the images I had painted as a child, and I found myself drawn back to painting.

In those early years, I became captivated by the golden hour, the brief moments at sunrise and
sunset when the landscape seems to glow from within. I began to question how, or even whether, this kind of light could be captured in paint. It was this search that first led me to gold leaf. Gold became a way of working with light itself rather than describing it. It reflects, absorbs, and shifts throughout the day, activating the surface of a painting and allowing it to remain present eve...