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| In 1934 he joined the Clyde Division of the
Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve and later served throughout the
war in the Royal Navy. In 1942 he was mentioned in dispatches
for distinguished service when the destroyer "Broke"
was sunk in the Mediterranean. He retired from the Navy in 1947
with the rank of Commander and resumed his career as a chartered
civil engineer working for the Colonial Service in Kenya.
Whilst in Kenya, he devoted much of his spare time to painting in both oil and watercolour, working on both landscape and maritime works, some of which were submitted for exhibition. In 1963 with the onset of his deafness he was forced to retire from the Colonial Service. Returning to England and an uncertain future, he began a new career as an artist, concentrating on the paintings of maritime history for which he has become so well known today. |
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| He was elected to membership of the Royal Society of Marine Artists
in 1966 and, in both 1982 and 1984 he was a finalist in the Hunting
Group Art Prizes organised by the Federation of British Artists. In
1988 the Royal Society of Marine Artists accorded him the unusual
honour of electing him to be an Honorary Vice President for life.
He came to international notice from 1968 when he began exhibiting at the Polak Gallery in London. Here he met my father Bob Jack. The two men became great friends and the association continued under the Polak banner until 1999. A series of seven highly successful one-man exhibitions took place at the Polak Gallery in 1972, 1975, 1978, 1982, 1987, 1990 and 1995, each accompanied by a splendid catalogue where Derek documented all the works on display. Our location in central London meant that the Gardner paintings were finding a large enthusiastic audience from all parts of the world, most notably in the USA. |
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| Although Derek was dedicated to his art his output was not particularly prolific; his method of working meant that each painting was the product of many weeks of research, design and painting, meaning that there were long gaps between the exhibitions and hungry collectors eagerly awaiting the new output at each event. His last London exhibition in 2005 – after a gap of 10 years - was on the theme of Nelson’s ships, a major exhibition celebrating the Bicentenary of the Battle of Trafalgar. |
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| Today Derek Gardner is considered to be one of the leading maritime artists of his era. His success lies in his ability to portray ships with great accuracy while conveying the colour, the luminosity and all the drama of the wind and sea. His work is in a number of public collections including the National Maritime Museum at Greenwich, the Royal Naval College at Dartmouth, the museums in Bermuda and Tenerife and in many private collections worldwide. |
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| Derek Gardner’s work has appeared in the following publications: · Tall Ships by Gareth Rees Phaidon, 1978 · Dictionary of Sea Painters Antique Collectors Club 1980 · The Windjammers by Oliver Allen Time Life Books, 1978 · 20th Century British Maritime Painting by Denys Brook-Hart · Maler der See Peter Tamm and Others Koehler, 1980 · The Passage Makers by Michael Stammers Teredo Books, 1978 · The Maritime History of the World by Duncan Haws and Alex Hurst Teredo Books,1985 · Sea History Magazine, Winter 1990 · Charleston’s Maritime Heritage, 1670 – 1865 An Illustrated History by P C Coker III Cokercraft Press, 1987 · Architectural Digest – Feature on the collection of Tom Selleck · Longitude, 1990, colour illustrations with text by Alex Hurst. Carlstedt Forlag AB Stockholm · A Celebration of Marine Art. 50 years of the Royal Society of Marine Artists. R.S.M.A , 1996 · The Tall Ship in Art Blandford, 1998 · Nelson’s Ships: A Trafalgar Tribute Antique Collectors
Club 2005 |
