Derek Stafford was a modern British artist. He taught David Hockney as a young man at the Bradford school of art and was a strong influence on his early painting. Stafford went on to befriend and work with many of the twentieth century greats including Augustus John, de kooning, Rothko not to mention Francis Bacon.

Derek was taught himself as a young artist at the Royal College of Art by Francis Bacon when Bacon stood in for John Minton in 1950.