Rick Bankhead is a plein air impressionist painter who from his earliest years loved painting. As a very near-sighted child, he created his own world within the details of his drawing. When he was nine years old, a few of his drawings were entered into an art exhibit among other elementary school students at The West Virginia University with acclaim. Rick took a career path in dentistry finding that dentistry offered him an outlet for his artistic skills. After graduating from The Ohio State University Dental School, he moved to Boston to begin private practice. He continued to nurture his passion for painting, taking classes with David Addison Small at Mass College of Art and with Ed Stitt at The School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (now affiliated with Tufts University).
Since 2020, he has made oil painting his second career, taking additional classes at The Cape School of Art and the Provincetown Art Association and Museum (PAAM). Currently he is honing his skills with John Clayton, Hilda Neilly and Syd Hale at The Cape School and with Jim Peters at PAAM. Rick is a member The Arts Foundation of Cape Cod, PAAM, The Provincetown Arts Society, and The Cape Cod School of Art. He is inspired with the magical lighting of Provincetown and seeks to capture that light in his work