John was born on April 11, 1933 and raised in West Virginia until age nine, when his family moved to New Jersey. As an undergraduate at Notre Dame University, John worked a pair of summers for a painter named Umberto Romano in East Gloucester, Massachusetts. In Romano’s gallery he met and soon dated his wife, Judy. He was drafted into the Army. After several months of base life, he received a posting to the Hawaiian Islands and they marrtied. He served night shifts, and during daylight hours enrolled in art classes at the University where he was mentored by Jean Charlot.
John then taught as an associate professor at Marymount College in Tarrytown, New York.
The Lochtefelds, grown to a clan with five children discovered the joys of Nantucket in 1969. He knew he’d found an art colony locale that could supplement his professor’s salary at Marymount. At first they rented along Still Dock, across from the rear doors of AAN and the Kenneth Taylor Galleries. Seeking room to expand, they purchased 4 Fair Street and moved there in 1974. They opened a summer studio and gallery that included a framing business. When John retired from Marymount in 1990, he and Judy settled on Fair Street permanently.
John readily admits the influence of Symbolist Paul Klee and Marc Chagall.
“I guess this also relates to storytelling. I’m embroidering my yarn or tale this way.”
And yes, it’s a world populated with his warmth of storytelling and his unique life story.
— Robert Frazier, 2019