Reg Watkiss was born in London in 1933. He first studied painting and photography at Walthamstow School of Art for a National Diploma in Design. Following this he was accepted as a scholarship student into the painting school of The Royal Academy of Arts, London.

In 1958, after completing four years there, he moved to the West Penwith area of Cornwall where he married his wife Gill, also a painter, and they have lived and worked there ever since. Around the early 1960s his interest in photography increased and this was developed, along with the need to provide for a growing family, by painting, part time teaching and carrying out commercial photographic commissions for other artists. At one time he taught art classes part time at the Humphrey Davy Grammar School for Boys in Penzance, passing on his knowledge of colour, painting and free flowing art to the local community. 

In the 1970s film-making was added to his interests and only recently the Tate Gallery took into their archives one of the short films he made at that time. Collecting archive photographs and old movie film remains very much an ongoing enthusiasm.

Reg is well known for being author of the books "Lost Cornwall" and "Reflections of Cornwall" that present an amaising archive of historic photographs of Cornwall life - the books have been very popular with artists, historians and the general public.

Reg is married to Gill who is herself a well known local artist.

Reg Watkiss - Boswarlas St Just

Reg Watkiss - Penwith Hills

Reg Watkiss - Penwith Hills - sketch

Lost Cornwall - Reg Watkiss 

Reflections of Old Cornwall - by Reg Watkiss