Patrick Downie was born in Greenock in 1854. He showed great artistic ability from an early age. His father died when he was still very young, and Downie was forced to seek employment as a van man, and then as a postman. He decided to devote his life to art and began a period of intense study first in this country and then in Paris. He failed however to find this to be a lucrative prospect at his home in 37 Roxburgh Street, Greenock and in 1887 went to Paisley where he married a daughter of the late ex-Provost Cochran.

Downie was an early contributor to the principal art exhibitions, including those of the Royal Scottish Academy, the Royal Glasgow Institute and the Royal Scottish Watercolour Society, as well as to exhibitions in Paris, Venice and elsewhere on the continent. In 1905 he was elected a member of the Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Water Colour.