Leon Loughridge was raised on a ranch outside Santa Fe. His early influence by his grandmother’s involvement in northern New Mexico art circles led to study in Santa Fe, Taos and at the Colorado Institute of Art in Denver. Today he owns the Dry Creek Art Press publishing company, where he utilizes his printmaking skills in reduction woodblocks and etchings hand-printed on a 1920 Vandercook Flatbed Letterpress for artists and commercial vendors. His work is in collections in the Denver Art Museum, the Denver Public Library, and the Colorado History Museum. Loughridge was selected to be the featured artist for the 2005 Colorado Mountain Landscape Exhibition and Sale.

In reduction printmaking, one block is used to create a multiple color print. The lightest color and the broadest area of the print is printed first for the entire edition, the block is then carved away leaving the next lightest, color which is printed. As the artist is continually removing material from the block to print the next color, the block is destroyed in the processes of making the image. The edition size is determined by how many acceptable impressions exist after the final color is printed.