Loren Mozley, painter of southwestern landscapes, was born in Brookport, Illinois, on October 2, 1905, to Charlie Almus and Ella (Phillips) Mozley. His father, a country physician, moved his family to New Mexico in 1906, and Mozley grew up in lumber and mining camps and pueblos. He was initially introduced to the materials of oil painting by one of his father's Navajo patients and began to paint at age eleven, after his family settled in Albuquerque.

Following his graduation from Albuquerque High School in 1923, he entered the University of New Mexico. During the summers he worked as a secretary for Mabel Dodge Luhan in Taos, where he came into contact with members of the artists' colony active at that...