Rick Hills was educated at the University of Florida where he graduated with a degree in Art and Design.  Mr. Hills gained an understanding of the impact well-crafted artwork could have on the preservation and appreciation of the earth.

In the 1980s and 1990s, Rick traveled throughout the U.S. and Canada exploring and painting the Great National Parks while exhibiting his acrylic paintings at the art festivals and fundraising receptions.  His landscape and wildlife paintings have won numerous awards and were published as fundraising lithographs, posters, and T-shirts for clients such as The Audubon Society, Save the Manatee Club, Wild Care Bird Center, Boca Sea Adventures Environmental Foundation, Project Reef Keeper, and International Week of the Ocean.  He was named Environmental Artist of the Year in 1997 and 1999.

In 2002, Rick relocated to the beautiful mountains of North Carolina where he has totally immersed himself in capturing the seasons, climate, wildlife, and culture of the Great Smokey Mountains.

“My art is intended to suggest the atmosphere or feeling of a place as it once was or could be.  Looser, suggestive brushworks, textures, and colors are employed to sing my songs of the wild.”