WILLIAM Littlejohn, the Scottish painter, has died in hospital after a short illness. He was 77.

Littlejohn, who was born in Arbroath and lived there for most of his life, was known for his modernist watercolours and iconic imagery.

He trained in art at Dundee and, after national service in the RAF and work as an art teacher at Arbroath High School, studied at Grays School of Art in Aberdeen, where he became a lecturer and later principal of the school of painting. Littlejohn was elected a member of the Royal Scottish Academy, the Royal Glasgow Institute and the Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Watercolour.

He had several one-man exhibitions at the Scottish Gallery in Edinburgh and galleries in London.

He died in the early hours of yesterday morning at Arbroath Infirmary.

Ed Littlejohn, his younger brother, said the artist had died in his sleep. "I think he'll be remembered by the beautiful pictures he painted. He had a continual and abiding passion for his art, " he said.