Silent Witness, HMAS Melbourne, Dili, East Timor
The name of this painting is most appropriate as the ship is sitting motionless on a smooth sea observing the nearby coastline of Dili.
- 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.
- About HMAS Melbourne (lll)
HMAS Melbourne was one of six Adelaide Class Guided Missile Frigates in service with the Royal Australian Navy. The ship was a long-range escort prioritised for area air defence and fully capable of surface and undersea warfare, surveillance, reconnaissance and interdiction. Melbourne underwent a significant upgrade in the mid-2000s which included upgrades to the combat system, radars, sensors and new missiles.
More reading
- Additional resources for John Downton
- Additional resources for HMAS Melbourne (lll)