A young girl came into the Gerringong Museum the other day and spent some time looking at all the history while waiting for a train back to Sydney.

She was so impressed with the Kiama district, the history and the scenery.

She made the observation that artists must flock to this place as it is so beautiful.

I pulled out my phone and showed her a set of paintings by an artist from Gerringong. She was very impressed.

His name was John Downton.

I first came across John when he opened Hilltop Gallery as my sister was one of a group of artists who exhibited pieces there.

Other artists who did the same were Michael McCarthy, Leonard Long and Vinh N Trieu.

The gallery was located on the first hill as you come into Gerringong from the Omega bridge.

The Mercure Resort is there now.

John was born in San Souci in 1939. His father was a veteran of horrible battles on the Western Front in World War I.

He first moved to Werri Beach when he was eight and immediately began a lifelong love affair with the beach and the sea.

A glance at a lot of his paintings will confirm this.

One great memory he has is of the old steam trains and the whistle they made as they passed the Omega station nearby.

In fact sometimes John joined Bob Holman who was the fettler on the local railways, and they would run the length of the line checking all the bolts and sleepers.

Another great memory John has from his time at Werri was when he built a boat in his house!

“I built a sailboat in the lounge room of my Werri Beach house - the house I had bought from Jack Holman,” he recalls.

“I wasn’t married then, otherwise this probably wouldn’t have happened.

“We had a job getting the sailboat out of the house when it was finished, but we finally succeeded.”

Even though John, with his family, or by himself, has moved away from Werri at different times, such as a move to Eden, he always seemed to return.

His first job was as a watchmaker. One day he met a REAL artist, Leonard Long.

Long was a brilliant landscape artist in his own right and was still painting when he was 100.

He was a watchmaker, like John, in Bowral but sold the business to become a full-time painter in 1955.

He had many successful exhibitions and was awarded the Order of Australia in 1993.

John was so impressed he was spurred on to become an artist himself.

Long encouraged him and helped John whenever he could. Often both of them, with other artists such as Michael McCarthy would go for road trips around the country to find beautiful scenery to paint. Judging by their paintings they were very successful.

Leaving watchmaking, John started his painting career in 1973. He attended art classes at the Royal Art Society of NSW.

To outline all of the achievements that John has attained in his long and rich career would take three or four full page articles in the Bugle.

I will try to outline just a few highlights.

John received an Australian Navy award in 1987 and he has had a long association with the Australian Navy. He was the Navy artist in East Timor in 2000. The Navy named a gallery inside the Fleet Air Arm Museum at Nowra the ‘John Downton Gallery’. John has painted numerous images of ships and sailors.

He was the first artist to be invited to hold an exhibition at the Mitchell Library in Sydney.

John has received numerous accolades from countries such as Japan and Ireland. The Japanese awarded him cultural awards in 1989 and 1999. The Irish invited him to hold an exhibition during a historical celebration in Dublin.

Westpac used his painting on an international Christmas card and many companies have used his paintings on their calendars.

He has conducted successful exhibitions in a large number of places including the abovementioned Hilltop Gallery each year.

He has won the Caltex Art Award three times.

John received an OAM in 2017.

This is but a small snapshot of his achievements. Through all this he has remained a quiet, friendly, lovely person.

Gerringong and the Kiama district have attracted many brilliant artists, and John has to be included in that list.

He certainly is my favourite. At my home we have many paintings of his adorning our walls.

I will make mention that most of the information and pictures for this article have come from John's book, ‘The Dirty Big Red Book’.

When talking to him I referred to it as The Big Red Book. ‘No no no no’, he said, ' you might get into trouble if you call it that!’