Artist Focus: R. H. Dick

R. H. Dick is a native of Missouri who grew up in Cass County near two cattle and horse ranches. He spent his childhood drawing and creating clay figures out of pond clay and was inspired by the landscape around him.

Taos Pueblo in 1970, oil on canvas, 24 x 20 in.

Through studying art and American history, Dick gained a deep appreciation for Native American culture and traveled through Montana and the Western United States visiting reservations and Native American communities. He befriended many pueblo people in Taos, New Mexico, and built relationships with them as they modeled for his paintings and bronze sculptures. These relationships helped inform his work. The painter has been making artwork with Western subject matter since the 1950s and he is deeply influenced by other Missouri-based painters such as Oscar E. Berninghaus, Carl Wimar and Charles M. Russell. He continues their tradition of painting landscapes and Native American people through dynamic compositions and well-defined brushstrokes. —