My good friend, fine artist John Luce Lockett, passed on to the next world on 9th May 2014 after a long battle with cancer. 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.
I first met John in a local pub many years ago. We immediately hit it off sharing the love of creativity, playing music, and even going to the same school way back in our earlier years. It was at that time I started to attend his life drawing classes where I spent many happy hours learning the craft and putting pencil to paper. He was a wonderful teacher, always offering his pupils tips and tricks to improve one’s skills, but never one to put down anyone’s efforts - “draw what you see” was his favourite saying.
Dirty Dicks bar
John lived in a large Victorian house in Northampton where he had his studio, held drawing classes, opening it for for gallery viewings, and had the famous cellar he called “Dirty Dicks”. The cellar was decked out with a bar and a nice space where he hosted many jam sessions which I attended on many occasions. I will always fondly remember those jams nights, playing with various local musicians and John on clarinet or sax. John would often record the sessions and play them back during his drawing classes. A big feature of the jam sessions was the curry he served us during the break - music and curry, perfect!
Legacy
John’s art is known the world over and will no doubt continue to be discovered for many years to come. He leaves behind his son, the extremely talented Billy Lockett who is making his mark on the world as a musician/songwriter. John often told me how proud he was of Billy and how he hoped he follows his dreams.
Thank you John, you will be missed by the many people you touched!