John Luce Lockett A lost Mind
John Luce Lockett gives us a window to a world just outside of our own.
He displays fantastic technical skill when painting his subjects, capturing their beauty with almost eerie precision bringing the viewer into his world and letting us see moments of pure humanity shared between two people. Lockett worked with various mediums, like chalk and watercolour, however, he always considered himself an oil painter and worked with said medium more often. John studied human anatomy knowledge that clearly shows in his work.
John often painted others but in two works he makes himself the subject, one painting is literal and the other figurative showing himself an expression of his innermost angst. The backgrounds of John Luce’s pieces often take on a much more chaotic and colourful tone when compared to the foreground. Johns sense of humour and love of life is clearly shown in his work, for instance in his literal self-portrait he has the eyes arranged in a way that they follow you around the room. Lockett was classically trained and attended The Byam Shaw, Kensington and The Northampton School of Art. His love of anatomy has always been a recurring theme in his work.
In 1998 John worked as a medical illustrator for Mr Nigel Cobb, the now-retired eminent orthopaedic surgeon. He also produced a series of drawings for an international lecture tour by Mr Cobb on his ground-breaking surgical technique: ‘Tibialis Posterior Repair.’
His love for romantic ideas lead John to paint Fletcher Christian, the Bounty mutineer, in 1995. This has become the accepted and most well-known painting of Christian and was used in the book ‘Fragile Paradise’ by Glynn Christian. Aside from painting the female form, historic figures and human anatomy he also had a deep love of capturing clouds in his works of landscapes. In these works the clouds are painted in such a way that they take centre stage shown in a photorealist style one can not help but make comparisons between the manner in which the clouds are painted and the women that he painted.
Lockett’s most recent exhibitions included ‘NightHawks,’ which were internationally exhibited by West End Galleries, Florida and by LCA in both New York and Los Angeles. John is an internationally published artist and has worked with the Bentley Publishing Group in California U.S.A. for many years with open prints in worldwide distribution through Leslie Levy Publishing. Signed limited edition prints are also available from LHG.
John Luce Lockett passed away on the 9th of May 2014 after a long battle with cancer.
What John left behind are wonderful memories shared by his friends and family one of his friends said in regard to his upbeat personality
“Whenever I visited him during his illness years he was always cheerful and upbeat, obviously troubled deep down, but determined to “carry on as usual”, indeed he did just that, continuing to paint and hold his regular drawing classes at his Northampton home.”
Another friend said in regard to John
“I will always recall his sense of humour and gentle manner. If he showed any pride at all it was probably reserved for his son Billy, a talented musician. Thanks for all your advise and God Bless John. I know a lot of people will miss you.”
In short, John left a lasting and significant impression on those he knew and those who were lucky enough to attend his life drawing classes, inspiring countless artists and leaving a lasting impact on the art world.
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