Lockwood deForest was born to an affluent family in 1850 in New York City. On a visit to Rome in 1869 deForest became intrigued by painting and began taking painting lessons from the Italian landscape artist Herman Corrodi. During that period he also became a pupil of the American painter Frederic Edwin Church (1826-1900), who was also a distant relative on deForest’s mother's side. According to deforest, the artist Church would become an lifelong influence on his philosophy of landscape painting.

Throughout his life deForest traveled throughout the United States Mexico, and Canada as well as the Middle East, Asia, Alaska and the exotic landscapes of far-off places. Deforest was said to have painted nearly 1300 oil sketches and paintings while traveling abroad. Deforest was most interested in notions of light and atmosphere in his paintings, and throughout his travels he explored these interpretations of technique.

In 1915, the artist settled  in Santa Barbara where he painted a number of scenes of the Central California coast. His paintings are held in the museum collections of the Alaska State Museum, Charles Hosmer Morse Museum of American Art (Florida); Herron Art Institute (Indianapolis); New York Historical Society; Cleveland Museum.