Mark Leslie is a Scottish contemporary artist.

As a young man my only dream was to become an ‘artist’ I wasn’t good at anything else and even if I were it wouldn’t have mattered as my mind was made up. I continued to pursue this journey even though I hadn’t the qualifications to get into college but was eventually accepted within Glasgow School of Art as an exceptional admittance, which really meant I was pretty stupid but could draw a bit. I became fascinated with the old masters; Rembrandt, Caravaggio and Vermeer. In fact quite an unhealthy obsession to be honest, it got to the stage where I destroyed over 4 years work, it just wasnt good enough! I graduated from Glasgow School of Art with a B.A (Hons) in Fine Art. I had sold pretty well at my degree show and had plenty of orders for work but was adament that unless the work that I did was of a particular standard, then I wasn’t going to contribute yet another sub-standard image within the public realm. Having nearly broken my soul, and having a young family to provide for, like many others before me I had to let my dream go and compromise most of my adult life taking many jobs over the years to provide for my family.

Things, however, took an unexpected change later in my life when I bought a camera. A few years passed, and I found a few subjects or areas that I started to develop. I focussed mainly on street work, abandoned buildings and documenting a market area in Glasgow known as the ‘Barras’. Outwith my full time job as a support worker, any free time I had was used working and developing these subjects. Over the past few years my love and passion for the old masters has resurfaced, and what I couldn’t achieve with paint and brush all those years ago, I now endeavor to capture the spirit of my subjects with my camera and light.

I rarely show my work and feel very little drive towards marketing. Not that I don’t want to make money or my work to be seen. But my main objective has always been to strive to create something of worth, something with substance. I think thats what I’ve always admired in the old masters works who created timeless masterpieces, inspirational images that one could be proud of.

I’m still working on that.

Mark Leslie