Coney Island

Buckner grew up painting with his father, the painter, Walker Buckner. He attended Vassar College and received a BFA from The School of the Art Institue of Chicago. The artist has exhibited throughout the United States.

Derek Buckner’s virtuosity is revealed in visionary landscapes of country and shore which haunt our memories and delight our senses. Painting en plein air, in the tradition of the Impressionists, Buckner’s canvases offer a travelogue of European journeys, tropical idylls and familiar locales. Standing before each painting, we bathe in the fast- fleeting atmosphere of the scene, experiencing it fully. Beyond the landscape, Buckner voraciously applies his considerable skill to the figure, working masterfully from the model in the classical tradition. Another favorite subject is his native Brooklyn, where trucks, ships and factories occupy a crowded picture plane.  Using singular blocks of color as stand-ins for buildings or truck bodies, the artist depicts the industrial core of a tireless city, unmanicured, yet beautiful.