Eugene "Bud" Leake pronounced "Leaky" (31 August 1911 – 21 January 2005) was a landscape painter and president of the Maryland Institute College of Art.

His work was characterized by a consistent commitment to the depiction of the landscape, not following ever-changing trends of contemporary art in the 20th century.

In an October 2000 Baltimore Sun article Glenn McNatt wrote that, "For the past quarter century, Leake has been recording that landscape in all its moods and seasons, from riotous sun-drenched spring mornings to the magical glow of autumnal sunsets.

"[1] In a 1993 ARTnews article Tom Weisser wrote: "Leake's great strength is his ability to capture the essence of things with economy and easy grace.

Yet the viewer can almost feel the flat, hard cold of Leake's gray winter mornings, the snap of his autumn afternoons, and the electricity in his gathering summer skies.

Back in New England, Leake built a studio and made a living painting commissioned portraits and teaching art classes.

[1] During World War II, Leake first took a job at a defense plant, then later joined the Navy, where he continued to paint watercolors during his off hours.

[1] When Eugene Leake attended Yale University, Josef Albers had recently retired from the chair of the School of Art but continued to be a presence on campus.

"He recruited the best artists he could find as teachers, among them the painters Grace Hartigan and Raoul Middleman, sculptors Norman Carlberg and Stephanie Scuris, and painter-printmaker Peter Milton.

But he retired to the rural Maryland countryside north of Baltimore, where he took up the solitary life of a creative artist and [continued as] a successful and respected landscape painter.