Hank Lawshe was born in Los Angeles in 1935 and died in 1993. When his commercial art employer was moving East that was the decision point in his career. After growing up on the family farm in central Illinois, he worked as a mechanic and soldier, with five years as a champion race car driver, and began his career in art as a sign painter. In 1966, he accepted a job as a commercial artist with a new advertising agency in Fort Collins, Colorado, and was promoted to Vice President in 1971, in management rather than art. He continued to paint in oil as a hobby, selling the paintings through a sporting goods store. When his employer asked him to move, he quit and became a caretaker of a remote Montana ranch. Teaching himself to switch to fine art was difficult. In 1977, he won the Best of Show at the C. M. Russell Art Show and in 1979 he was elected a member of the Northwest Rendezvous Group.