Betty Buckner, artist and former Malibu resident, died in Santa Monica on March 9 at the age of 96. She was raised on a dairy farm in Carnation, Wash., and graduated with high honors from Washington State University at Pullman, Wash.. She much later studied painting with Alexander Nepote at San Francisco State University.
She and her late husband, Al Buckner, moved to Malibu in 1966, living first on Coastline Drive and later in a house they designed and built in Las Flores Canyon. The house burned to the ground along with the majority of Betty’s artwork in the 1993 fires. They moved to Camarillo a year later.
Betty was past president of Women Painters of the West, a member of the Buenaventura Art Association, California Collagists and a member of the board of trustees for the Los Angeles Art Association. She exhibited widely, including San Bernardino County Museum, Downey Art Museum, Mount St. Mary’s Gallery, Los Angeles and had solos exhibits at Brand Library in Glendale, Studio Art Center Channel Islands, and Buenaventura Art Gallery. She won first prize in the Ventura County Fair exhibit and received the 2010 Lifetime Achievement Award from the Buenaventura Art Association.
Her loved one said she will be remembered for her kindness, humor, and impressive body of work.
She is survived by her three daughters, Cory Buckner, Rande Lisle Anderson, Jody Buckner Semerau; five grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren.