Printmaker, painter, and illustrator Lockwood Dennis was born in Portland, Oregon, in 1937. His formal education began at Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington, where he earned his BA in Philosophy in 1960. He then attended the University of Washington, Seattle, where he earned his MA in 1963. To support himself, he worked for the Forest Service in eastern Oregon and the Cascades.

A change of interest led him to the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in 1967, where he was awarded a Junior Fellowship the following year. He worked in oil paints and woodcuts, and took inspiration from the anonymity of city life, frequently capturing city- and town-scapes with the people omitted. He would look instead to industrial and urban architecture and transportation, focusing particularly on depictions of the old cars he recalled from his childhood. Trips to California, Colorado, Japan, and Africa, as well as his time with the Forest service, fueled an interest in the natural world and he would incorporate the flora of these places into many of his compositions. 

He began exhibiting in group shows throughout the state of Washington, including at the Arts Alliance in Wantchee (1968), Columbia Basin College, Pasco (1972), and Yakima Valley College, Yakima (1973). He then began exhibiting across the US. In 1969 he taught at the Charles River Art Center in Massachusetts, and from 1970 to 1974 he taught at the Yakima Valley College Evening School. His first solo exhibition took plate at the Newton Public Library in Newton, MA, in 1969.

Dennis settled in Port Townsend, Washington, around 1975, and remained there as a working artist until his death in 2012. His work can be found in the collections of the US Library of Congress and the US Department of State, Art Bank Collection, Washington, D.C.; Seattle Art Commission; Whitman College; Museum of Northwest Art, La Conner, WA; Jefferson Museum of Art and History, Port Townsend; Museum of History and Industry, Seattle; the Hallie Ford Museum of Art, Salem, OR; Tacoma Art Museum, Tacoma, WA; Clallam County Historical Society, Port Angeles, WA; Swedish Medical Center Foundation, Seattle, WA; Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, WA; and many others.

Commissions:
2008: Black Diamond Library paintings collection, King County Library System, WA
1992: 85th Pike Place Market Association, poster commission

Solo Exhibitions:
2014: "Lockwood Dennis Retrospective", Malloy College of Art Gallery, Rockville Centre, NY; "Lockwood Dennis, 1937 - 2012: Retrospective", Davidson Galleries, Seattle, WA
2012: Northwind Arts Center, Port Townsend, WA
2009: "Paintings, 1968-2008", Davidson Galleries
20o6: "Nine Days in Kobe", Davidson Galleries
2005: "Peninsula Paintings", Museum and Arts Center, Sequim, WA; "Castles and Ruins", Davidson Galleries
2002: "Roadbuilders", Davidson Galleries
2000: "Around Town", Davidson Galleries
1998: "Architechture and Automobiles", Davidson Galleries
1983-1996: Davidson Galleries
1981-1982: Howell Street Gallery, Seattle, WA
1977: NN Gallery, Seattle, WA
1974: Yakima Regional Gallery, Yakima, WA
1972: Carnegie Gallery, Walla Walla, WA
1969: Newton Public Library, Newton, MA

Group Exhibitions:
2014: Small Print Exhibition, Davidson Galleries, Seattle, WA (posthumous)
2013: Lockwood Dennis and James Ball, Jefferson Art and History Museum, Port Townsend, WA (posthumous)
2011: Prints by Northerst Artists, Santa Rosa Junior College, Santa Rosa, CA
2006: "Then and Now: Collectors and Their Artists", Northwind Art Center, Port Townsend
2000: Sister Cities Art Exhibition, Pesci Galleria, Pecs, Hungary
1998: "About Drawing", Ed Cain Gallery, Port Townsend
1997: Davidson Galleries, Seattle, WA; Kirkland Printmakers Show, Kirkland Arts Center, Kirkland, WA; Ed Cain Gallery
1995: Contemporary Block Prints, Whatcom Museum of Art, Bellingham, WA; "Eight Seattle Print Artists", Fisher Gallery, Cornish College of Arts, Seattle
1993 -'94: 1004 Gallery Invitational, Port Townsend
1992: Northwest Artists' Woodcuts, Kirkland Arts Center
1991: Davidson Galleries
1986: Contemporary Artists, Pacific Arts Center, Seattle; Mercer Island Community Center Gallery, Mercer Island, WA; Sheehan Gallery, Whitman College; "Fantasy on Wheels", Bellevue Art Museum, Bellevue, WA; Contemporary Artists, Pacific Arts Center
1985: "Images of Seattle", Jackson Street Gallery, Seattle, WA
1974: Bangor College, Bangor, ME
1973: Yakima Valley College
1972: Columbia Basin Collge
1968: Arts Alliance, Wenatachee, WA