Artist and teacher who lived near the edge of Morecambe Bay, Lancashire. His work celebrated its peculiar qualities and light as well as being, in his words, “landscapes of an interior space that mirrors and reflects the external flow and change”. Downing studied at Leeds and Royal Colleges of Art. Was a teacher of fine art, 1954–84, when he took early retirement from his post of principal lecturer at Preston (later Lancashire) Polytechnic. Then painted full-time. From 1952 Downing’s work was seen throughout the country in many solo and mixed exhibitions. These included an Arts Council tour, Bradford Print Biennale, the International Drawing Biennale in Cleveland and Lancashire South of the Sands, which toured from the County and Regimental Museum, Preston, 1988.