30 September, 2025

Veteran artist paints ‘the feeling’ to capture essence of local coastline and seascapes

Constant movement… One of Devonport artist Graham Downs’ paintings depicts a neighbour’s daughter swimming at the northern end of Cheltenham Beach.

“The rocks around North Head – they must know me by name,” says Devonport painter Graham Downs.
Many of the artist’s seascapes have their beginnings there, in what he sees on his regular walks there and on Cheltenham Beach.
A familiar figure out with his sketchbook or easel, Downs is a master of capturing the allure of the coastline.
In his latest exhibition, At the Water’s Edge, at Art by the Sea gallery in Takapuna, Downs mixes moody scenes with those that tell of sparkling summers.
One painting depicts a neighbour’s daughter swimming at the north end of Cheltenham. He took a photo to capture the moment, but then drew on his knowledge of the look of the sea to work on the piece in his studio. “It’s the spirit you want,” he says.
Capturing a fleeting impression is also to the fore in imagined images of a woman wading into the water and a young boy paddling in the shallows, bucket in hand.
The drama of his beloved rocks is recalled as he decides to show them.
“They’re not really reality – when I paint water I’m not painting what’s naturally there. You never get it like it is, even if you draw it from life, because the tide goes out in two hours. Instead you’re trying to paint that feeling.”
The fascination with the sea is in the play of light upon it, reflections from the sky and how the light cuts through the water revealing glimpses of what is below. “And it’s constantly moving.”
Being out in nature is a boon. He likes to work nearly every day, either outdoors with pencil or gouache or in his home studio. “I paint very intuitively.
“I don’t think about what I’m painting.” On his walks something might capture his eye, even though he has passed it a thousand times before.

Another shows rocks and the sea at the base of Maungauika

Downs has been drawing since childhood, building the foundation on which he works today. He advises younger artists that practice is key to finding your flow. “Everything starts with the sketchbook – I tell young people: ‘You just have to draw all the time’.”
He remembers painting his father’s car at age nine. Unfortunately, the “prettty good” first result isn’t in his collection, thanks to the kid from next door throwing up on his pad.
Over the years exhibiting he has also painted garden and street scenes, but is always drawn back to the ocean.
Downs says he aims to make people’s lives more joyful through his works. At 77, he finds things that were difficult in his younger years have been overcome, but there are new problems with ageing, such as in the flexibility of his hands.
But the need to paint and what he describes as the privilege of exhibiting still drives him. “You come down to the wire with the last few pictures.”
Sorting the dozen or so mostly watercolour paintings on show meant finding new favourites among his works.
Although he sometimes ventures to Waiheke, for the most part his locations are local.
“It’s a beautiful place and my whole thing is about making beautiful paintings,” he says.
“I don’t need to go far to do that.”
• Graham Downs: At the Water’s Edge, until 30 September at Art by the Sea gallery, 162 Hurstmere Rd, Takapuna.