Luke Deacon

Local Contemporary Art Prize 2026 – Finalist

Image courtesy of the artist. Photo by Christine Hall.

Luke Deacon | Tidal calligraphy (First Bay) | 2026 | oil on linen | 120 x 150cm

This painting emerges from numerous wanderings and a series of small painted studies at First Bay, Coolum, where I like to observe tide, rock, and weather in constant negotiation and play. I translate the landscapes movement, pressure, and rhythm into a visual language of line, colour, and layered mark - a kind of coastal calligraphy.

The surface is created through successive passes of drawing and painting, allowing forms to erode, reassert themselves and shift - mirroring the way our coastal environments wrestle and dance with the shores over time. Gestural lines operate like calligraphy, recording energy, direction and elemental presence.

My painting moves between direct observation and abstraction, using memory and sensation as much as place. The resulting work sits in the space between land and water, structure and flow, inviting the viewer to read the painting as a language written by tide, stone, and hand.