Leslie Buck

Biography: Leslie Helen Binner (Buck) was an accomplished California artist known for her still life’s and scenes of the American West. She was born in Chicago, Illinois on April 27, 1907. As a young woman Binner began studying art at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. During this period, it was not common for women to pursue careers in art but she showed talent at an early age.  While attending The Art Institute of Chicago she met another artist named Claude Buck. He had become recognized early on as an artist and was the youngest artist ever to be accepted to the National Academy of Design. He was known for his surreal images and figurative paintings.

In 1934 Leslie and Claude Buck married and decided to move to California. The Bucks lived in the Santa Cruz mountains from 1943-1959 where they continued to paint and make art. Leslie Buck was best known for her still-lifes and interior scenes but also painted landscape. The Bucks collaborated with other California artist of their time, A highly skilled painter, Buck's work was quite skilled -- yet she never earned the same acclaim as her husband Claude Buck.

Claude Buck had attended  National Academy of Design and was taught by artists  Emile Carlsen, George deForest Brush, Francis Jones, and Kenyon Cox. Buck had also traveled to Munich and was exposed to much of the modernist and surreal movements of Europe. Claude implemented Surrealist scenes in many of his paintings. 

Although Leslie Buck produced a significant and skilled body of work, many women artists  never earned the noteriety of their male peers. Artist's like Lee Krasnow, Helen Frankenthaler, Helen Lundeberg, and Jessie Arms Botke, were overshadowed by their famous male partners. But now, more is becoming known of these equally if not more talented artists. In the art market many works by these women are still undervalued. Leslie Buck is one of those artists.

Leslie Buck loved traveling in the Western part of the United States, painting still lifes and Native American subjects. Leslie Buck’s “Jimson Weed” is a characteristic still life but with a unique modern sensibility. The Bucks lived in Santa Cruz, CA near San Francisco in 1943 where they lived and painted for nearly 20 years. In 1959 Leslie Buck moved to Santa Barbara where she lived until her death in 1991.

Buck’s work is included in a recent book on California women artists entitled: Emerging from the Shadows by Maurine St. Gaudens.

Exhibited:

Sanity in Art Chicago, 1938

Santa Cruz Art League, 1944

Carmel AA, 1946-52

Santa Cruz Co. Fair, 1947, 1950

Oakland Art Gallery, 1947, 1948

WWAA 1940-62.