Paul Deacon

There was no point at which I consciously became a marine artist as I am self-taught and the beginnings evolved over many years influenced by numerous threads. My formative years in Dartmouth, Devon (b.1953) the son of a fisherman and an artistic mother were spent around harbours and West-country coasts and from the mid 1960s when living on the rugged west coast of Ireland. Inspiration was drawn from these genetic threads, these maritime locations and ships in port. As a young boy the smell of my mothers oil paints and dads old crab pots permeated home and as a family we loved fossicking the tidelines.

I served ten years in the Merchant Navy where I gained an intrinsic affinity with the marine environment and where marine art became a natural extension of my life. I gained an extensive knowledge of European coasts and navigation requirements and aside from working ships I have voyaged on sailing vessels in UK and New Zealand waters. I visited galleries and museums in ports where time and work allowed astonished at the remarkable breadth of marine art from traditional Dutch masters to French abstract artists in Brittany. I regularly painted on board ship sketching the wharf side world of bollards and warps and sea splattered ships thus gaining my first commissions from fellow mariners.

 Now as an established marine artist and ex seafarer I have an astute understanding of the sea, of ships, atmosphere, light, movement and space combined with technical finesse enabling me to portray quality marine art.

On occasions I step away from traditional marine art and undertake contemporary renderings of nautical subjects where minute details are observed, drawn and painted. Often my artworks cross artistic as well as geographical boundaries as I rely on notions of past places, experiences and feelings, of reference notes, photos and sketches. My marine paintings are a collection of real, imaginary and abstract compositions representing all aspects of the maritime world.

Whether traditional, abstract or contemporary, my knowledge of artist’s materials and application of paint to canvas ensures each marine study I produce is a unique creation.