Luke Buck grew up in Indiana with a love for life, art, and nature that is evident in his nostalgic paintings of Americana. Traveling the back roads in search of scenic places, Buck will sometimes round a bend in the road, and the setting will find the artist. Most of Luke's art education came from training he received from his artist father, Harold Buck, whom he shared a studio with for many years. Luke studied figure drawing at John Heron Art Institute after majoring in art at Arsenal Technical High School in Indianapolis. His advanced training came from intense study, practice, and devotion, while working full time as a professional artist since 1959. During this time Luke was involved in not only fine arts, but also in commercial art, teaching, and during his hitch in the U.S. Army as an illustrator. In 1981 he abandon the commercial art to devote his attention to fine art full time.

An intense painter, Buck loses himself in the experience and prefers to work without any distractions. From the many reference photos he takes, he may select only a small section of a photo for a painting. Although Luke indulges into artistic license to create the feeling of the moment he tries to maintain the accuracy of the scene. This is a part of preserving the vanishing subject matter.