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You are here: Home / Artworks / Ships and aircraft in company / Howzat Good Catch Sea Fury RAN

Howzat Good Catch Sea Fury RAN

by John Downton

Dimensions:
78 cm x 63 cm
Medium:
Oil on Canvas
Place made:
Australia
Date:
c1950
Setting:
Korean War (1950-1953)
Image courtesy of the RAN Fleet Air Arm Museum

The aircraft carrier safely catches the RAN Sea Fury aircraft on landing.

  • About John Downton

    Born in Sydney in 1939, John Downton (OAM) is one of Australia's finest international landscape and navy artists. He was awarded the Order of Australia (OAM) for services to visual arts as a landscape and maritime artist and for services to the community in 2017.

    He initially trained and worked in watchmaking but realised his dream later to become a professional artist. He attended classes at the Royal Art Society of NSW and private lessons with George Duncan.

    He is passionate about the sea, and he travelled to East Timor in 2000 as an official Navy artist and documented naval and peacekeeping activities in paintings.  He continues to paint historical and present-day naval activities, and a gallery has been named after him at the Fleet Air Arm Museum at HMAS Albatross.

    John Downton has held exhibitions in Sydney, Eden, Canberra, and internationally. Companies and public institutions have used John's work on calendars and cards. If you want to know more about John’s life he has published a 338 page autobiography, The Dirty Big Red Book: Downton, An Artist on the Move, which includes colour photographs of many of John's works.

    More paintings by John Downton
  • About Ships and aircraft in company

    In this section a wide variety of artworks with more than one ship, submarine or aircraft are featured. When two or more naval vessels are operating together they are said to be ‘in company’.

    The diverse nature of activities, exercises and deployments undertaken by ships, submarines and aircraft of the Royal Australian Navy means that a ship may spend long periods conducting single ship operations or periodically join with large numbers of other ships for such events as a naval review or fleet entry to a port. These latter events are generally scheduled to commemorate a particular event.  During such events a prominent or royal figure will review the fleet as part of the ceremony. Throughout its history ships of the RAN have participated in major fleet entries and reviews both in Australian waters and overseas.

     

    Details of Ships in the First Fleet

    Name Class Commission Dates
    HMAS Australia Indefatigable Class 21 Jun 1913 – 12 Dec 1921
    HMAS Melbourne Town Class Light Cruiser 18 Jan 1913 – 23 Apr 1928
    HMAS Sydney Town Class Light Cruiser 26 Jun 1913 – 8 May 1928
    HMAS Encounter Challenger Class Light Cruiser 1 Jul 1912 – 1 Jan 1923
    HMAS Warrego River Class 1 Jun 1912 – 22 Jul 1919
    HMAS Parramatta River Class 10 Sep 1910 – 22 Jul 1919
    HMAS Yarra River Class 10 Sep 1910 –  30 Sep 1929

More reading

  • Additional resources for John Downton
    • John Downton - Australian Society of Marine Artists (marineartistsaustralia.com.au)
    • Downton Art Studios
  • Additional resources for Ships and aircraft in company
    • Australian Fleet Reviews 1788 to 1914
    • Occasional Paper 162: Port Phillip’s Fleet Review 1920
    • The Royal Australian Navy fleet entry of 1913 (awm.gov.au)
    • Occasional Paper 17: Fleet arrival in Sydney – 4 October 1913
    • 1913 RAN Fleet Entry (Youtube)
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