ARTS & CULTURE
BETWEEN
BY BYRON LUKAS
Kate Gottgens
Some paintings tell a story. Others leave you with more questions than answers. For South African artist Kate Gottgens, the canvas is a space where memory, imagination, and everyday life collide.
With her distinctive eye for atmosphere and the unexpected, Gottgens shares with Inbound SA about her creative process, the influence of Cape Town, and what continues to inspire her artistic journey.
WHERE DO YOU FIND INSPIRATION FOR THE WORLDS YOU CREATE? Inspiration comes from reading and looking. Poetry blurs those lines, as does certain literary fiction and films where mood and atmosphere play a pivotal role. I collect old photographs, particularly from the late 20th century: anonymous, found photos of everyday scenes that give me a hint of a narrative I can appropriate and expand into the imaginary.
WHEN YOU START A NEW PAINTING, DO YOU USUALLY HAVE A CLEAR IMAGE IN YOUR HEAD, OR DOES THE ARTWORK EVOLVE AS YOU WORK? Painting is a physical and unruly thing. It is not possible to have a clear image in one’ s head that just requires rendering. A painting evolves in a process with oil and turpentine, where turpentine dissolves many false starts until images gradually amalgamate and a composition develops.
HOW MUCH DOES LIVING AND WORKING IN CAPE TOWN INFLUENCE YOUR WORK? Many of my paintings have scenes of lush gardens and bodies of water that echo my local natural environment and a Southern Hemisphere aesthetic.
34 INBOUND SA / NOVEMBER 2026