The Ken Lochhead Gallery Collection

Shop for prints, maps, tableware & mugs by East Lothian watercolour artist Ken Lochhead. Orders accepted by private message to the page. Payment by Paypal.

Ken Lochhead was born in Milngavie, Glasgow in 1936, but grew up in East Lothian. He was educated at the Knox Institute in Haddington, North Berwick Primary School and George Watson's School for Boys in Edinburgh. He studied architecture at Edinburgh College of Art between 1955 and 1960, in the years of William (Willie) Gillies and T. Elder Dickson as principal and vice principal. During that time he won the Sloane Medallion and a scholarship to travel in Italy. From an early age he was good at drawing, and he was soon to make a name for himself, as an employed architect, for his perspective drawings.

Ken married in 1960 and in 1972 (with five children to feed! ) he resigned from salaried employment to become a self-employed artist. Between 1974 and 1979, Ken and Sheila ran a coffee shop and gallery in Haddington - The Primrose Gallery. In 1986, they opened a gallery and gift shop in The Square, East Linton.

In Ken's lifetime, he produced an extensive range of greetings cards, limited edition prints, and a series of pictorial maps, not to mention many hundreds of original watercolour paintings. Favourite places to paint were the west coast of Scotland, and nearer to home, the fishing villages of Fife and of course East Lothian. He was greatly influenced by Chinese and Japanese art and the works of Turner, Mactaggart, Rowland Hilder, and the Scottish Colourists including Joan Eardley. Exhibitions of his work were held regularly throughout Scotland, and he was always a popular guest tutor to many art groups.

Ken was a much loved and gifted watercolour artist; his great philosophy being "less is more". He died in 2006, leaving behind a wonderful legacy for us all to enjoy.

Jo Lochhead