This manuscript derives locally weighted ensemble Kalman methods from the point of view of ensemble-based function approximation. This is done by using pointwise evaluations to build up a local linear or quadratic approximation of a function, tapering off the effect of distant particles via local weighting. This introduces a candidate method (the locally weighted Ensemble Kalman method for inversion) with the motivation of combining some of the strengths of the particle filter (ability to cope with nonlinear maps and non-Gaussian distributions) and the Ensemble Kalman filter (no filter degeneracy). We provide some numerical evidence for the accuracy of locally weighted ensemble methods, both in terms of approximation and inversion.