Larry Martin Locke

I was born in Gray County, in the Texas Panhandle. I spent my younger years working as a cowboy on ranches near Pampa, Texas and Eastern New Mexico. I went to college at Texas A&M and I won an award for cow judging but not for art. I took up painting and saw that as an escape from a tough existence. I was lucky to know people that collected western art and their encouragement led me to leave a barren wasteland and move to Dallas. I have to admit I have never taken an art class. I bought books on painting and went public with a competition with more than one thousand entries for critic's choice presented by the Dallas Visual Art Center. I was fortunate to be one of fifty entires to win at that show. I have been lucky to have sold many paintings to many people and my work has been in numerous publications: Metropolitan Home, D Home Magazine, Neiman Marcus Catalog and other urban publications.