 Randy on Buck Mackey Ranch 1991 |
Randy Follis (Randall LaMar Follis) Born December 1, 1939 Corsicana, Texas
Grew up on farms and ranches in the Texas Hill Country and the Texas Panhandle. Graduated High School Dimmitt, Texas 1958 Moved to Hobbs, New Mexico and began to paint while employed by a local furniture store. 1965 Moved to Farmington, New Mexico and became serious about painting while employed by a local furniture store. Painted after work and on week-ends. 1972 Became a full time artist in 1982. Moved to Colorado and lived on Alan & Pat Knight's ranch. 1986 to 1998 |
 Randy and Ricey at work in the San Juan Mountains. |
 Randy the cowboy???? |
Edna - Randy - Luther My sister and brother. |
This photo was taken at my grandmother's house in Levelland, Texas. Not sure about the year. While visiting my grandmother several years later, we asked to go to the movies, (25¢). I was an avid western movie fan, and still am. We went to see the western, "The Virginian", staring one of my favorite stars, Joel McCrea. This is the movie where he hung his best friend, for stealing cattle. When we arrived back at my grandmother's, my brother and a boy next door, decided they would play out the movie and hang me..... They proceeded to stand me me in a chair, fashioned a crude hangman's noose and placed it around my neck. They decided to throw the rope over a tree limb so it would slide off and not really hang me. All was going well until the chair was kicked from under me. The rope hung up in the tree's bark and I was dancing in mid-air. The next door boy was trying to get out his pocket knife to cut the rope, and my brother was screaming for my grandmother, who panicked when she saw what was going on. I'm sure I was blue in face when the rope finally broke and I hit the ground. It's funny now, but is wasn't then. |
Photo taken of me and my brother in Levelland, Texas. Me Holding the horn. 1946 This was my first Longhorn experience. Started to school that same year in Levelland, in temporary classrooms in a local church because the oil boom had increased the population so much. Was soon moved to a school in Sundown, Texas. Max Davis, the actor, was in the same school. |
 Randy & Luther Follis |
 Randy on the ranch in Colorado. I'm the one with the hat on...... |
 Doing a 30" x 40" painting of Monument Valley. |
 Curt Walters & Randy Follis Painting the Tetons on location near Jackson, Wyoming. |
 Donela Owen - Randy Follis - Novella King Artist friends at the art gallery in Farmington, New Mexico. |
 Posing here with two New Mexico State Police officers. |
In 1984 I was commissioned by the New Mexico Police Department to do a large painting for their 50th anniversary. 1935 to 1985. They made Signed & Numbered posters of the painting. The original painting hangs in the Board Room at the State Police Head Quarters in Santa Fe, New Mexico. I lived in Bloomfield, New Mexico at the time and the Post Office was just across the alley from my studio. There were so many law officers coming by the studio every day that the Post Master finally came over to see what was going on. |
 Painting on location in the La Plata Mountains east of Durango, Colorado. |
 \Randy with movie actor Edd Burns at the Durango Western Film Festival. 1999 Edd played Kookie in the TV series "77 Sunset Strip." He has stared in 7 westerns. |
Here we are on the mules east of Molas Lake near Silverton, Colorado. The peak in the very back of the photo is Engineer Mountain. The bandage around my head is not a tooth ache. It is from a wreck I had the day before. Riding down a steep trail my mule took a long step down and my saddle slid down her neck, stopping just behind her ears. When she got her front feet on level ground she started to buck. Me, being the cowboy that I am promptly went sailing through the air and and landed in the slide rock going down the side of the mountain. (We were above timberline). It was misting rain and I had on my saddle slicker. I landed face up with my head pointing down the mountain. It was so steep I began to slide down the mountain on my back. I hit a large rock which was sticking up and it flipped me end over end and I was now face down in the rocks. My glasses were broken and blood was running down my face. The misting rain added to the blood and I must have been a sight. One of the other guys with us came running up, stopped, and with wide eyes, makes one of those statements you love to hear when you are wounded and can't see it yourself. "Oh, My God!" Makes a person feel real good............... Dr. Gene Whitehorn , a veterinarian was back in camp. When we arrived there he cleaned the wound. A piece of my scalp about 3 inches in diameter was almost torn from my head. He tried to clean the small rocks and grit from the wound. He had nothing to sew the scalp back, so he covered the raw area with some mule salve, laid the scalp in place, and wrapped a bandage around my head. It healed fine, but for two years I would scratch an itchy spot on my scalp and it would be a small rock that had finally worked its way to the surface. OH!......the price we pay for playing cowboy....................... |
 My mule riding buddy, Montia Whitaker, and I in the San Juan Mountains. The Mules are standing on rock tailings from a mine. The mine was almost at the very top of the mountain. There was an old miner's cabin near by. In fact the person who took this photo was standing inside the mine taking this picture. I packed into the San Jan Mountains with Montia for over 10 years. |
 Alison, my wife, with Max and Sherman. |
 Oran - Lucille - Luther - Edna - Randy And of course, the ole' Studebaker. The Follis Family - Dimmitt, Texas 1957 |
