Rick joined Royal Worcester, where he worked alongside Harry Davis, widely regarded as one of the 20th century’s foremost ceramic artists. This formative period shaped Rick’s distinctive practice, spanning oil painting and, most notably, porcelain as a fine-art canvas.

His career later took him to the United States, where one commission remains particularly significant. In 1971, the Nixon administration commissioned Rick to sculpt three sets of life-size “Peace Swans”. President Richard Nixon presented one set to Chairman Mao, another to Pope Paul VI, now displayed in the Vatican Museum and the third is held on permanent display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.