My father, Peter Lloyd-Jones, who has died aged 92, studied chemistry at university but was determined to become a painter, and his ability to combine science and art became the foundation of his career. After setting up a new department concerned with the technology of artists’ materials at Wimbledon School of Art in south-west London in the 1960s, in 1972 he was appointed head of the School of Three-Dimensional Design at Kingston Polytechnic (now University).
Under his leadership, Kingston became one of the most prestigious centres for design education in the UK – its work was featured in a 1984 exhibition at the V&A Museum. Ever the innovator, Peter then set up the first UK postgraduate course in design for film and television at Kingston. He was also a member of the advisory board of the University of Art and Design in Helsinki, and maintained a happy association with Finland for 14 years.
Born in Farnham, Surrey, Peter was the son of Nellie (nee Daniels) and Howell Lloyd-Jones, who worked on the railways. At the outbreak of the second world war he and his younger sister, Margaret, were evacuated to Wadebridge in Cornwall. Howell died during the war, leaving Nellie to bring up the children by herself in London.
Peter attended Battersea grammar school, followed by Imperial College London, where he studied chemistry. Science seemed to offer financial security, so a growing interest in art took second place for a time, and Peter went on to gain a doctorate at King’s College, Cambridge, in 1959.
However, increasingly unhappy and conflicted, he enrolled at the Slade School of Art, funding his place through a research post at the Courtauld Institute of Art into the science of conservation of old master paintings. In 1960 he met Jenifer Lawson Barnes, a ceramicist. They married in 1963 and went on to have two daughters, Myfanwy and me.
Throughout his career Peter continued to paint, with work included in several group exhibitions and three one-man shows, as well as decorative work for architectural design projects.
He was an excellent communicator and in demand as a speaker and commentator. Between the 1960s and 1990s he appeared on radio and television in broadcasts on popular taste such as An Englishman’s Home on BBC Radio 3 in 1977, and Design Matters on Channel 4 in 1990. His 1991 book, Taste Today, won the International Robert Maxwell Prize for New Writing on Design Thinking – he later joked privately that he was one of the few men to have actually made money from Maxwell. On his retirement in 1993 he was appointed emeritus professor of Kingston University.
Peter was a loyal friend and loved conversation and laughter around the dinner table. Having lost his father so young, his male friendships were perhaps especially valuable to him, and he had a close relationship with his father-in-law, Tony, with whom he enjoyed many happy sailing trips. After retiring to Cornwall, he continued to paint, but also began to write poetry, finding a different kind of freedom of expression in verse.
Peter is survived by Jenifer, Myfanwy and me, and two grandchildren, Rhiannon and Benedict, and his sister, Margaret.
