Although Rick’s career has been concentrated upon the visual arts for the most part, his recent emphasis has been on harking back to the very basics of art; the use of just two elements to create an image. The more contemporary techniques of pen-and-ink carry this tradition from the earliest surviving example of an ink drawing in 300BC, into the modern age and beyond. It is challenging to work with the unforgiving application of the black line onto the white ground—one slip of the pen must either be incorporated into the composition, or the piece discarded, and better care taken in re-creating what has been sullied. Rick uses a tiny .2mm pen nib to develop most of his work.

"As with much two-dimensional art, a good creation in ink starts with a good pencil drawing. Here the artist is given his last chance in resolving all compositional issues before he can lay down the first irreversible line of the black upon the white”.

To arrive at the completion of the work is to apply literally thousands of individual lines, each applied with forethought. There are many techniques at the disposal of a pen-and-ink artist - numerous patterns of hatching and cross-hatching, varying widths or weights of line, and numerous stippling methods.

Rick has been inspired and influenced in inkwork by his heroes from the 19th and 20th century: Rockwell Kent, Gordon Grant, Welles Bosworth, Harry Clark, and Aubrey Beardsley, among others. Part of Rick’s intention is to blur the visual differences between pen-and-ink and woodcut techniques, resulting in compositions that may well consist of more black than white. Disappointed by much of what is available in contemporary frames, most of Rick’s work is framed with mouldings that he designs and builds!