Born in Hayle, Cornwall, the painter Dick Gilbert 'belonged to a coterie of Cornish-born and bred artists who proved a visually distinctive minority within the mid-century St Ives 'school'. These included Peter LANYON, Michael CANNEY, Margo MAECKELBERGHE, the potter William MARSHALL and before them the naive painters Alfred WALLIS and Mary JEWELS. [The Independent]

He served in the RAF and became a Leading Aircraftsman, and when he returned to St Ives, he became an exhibiting member of the Penwith Society and held solo exhibitions in London (Rawlinsky Gallery and the New Vision Centre Gallery). He attended the Regent Street Poly for a short period was essentially self-taught. But the strand of inspiration recalled from Cornwall was always present, with the topography of Hayle, Gwithian and the sands and dunes stretching to Godrevy with its lighthouse providing him with shapes and sweeps of movement in his work.

He undertook myriad jobs to make ends meet and to support his family, including waiting tables in St Ives, postman, lorry driving until finally he took up training to become a practitioner of the Alexander Technique. He went on to teach in Norway, Germany, Denmark, London and around Europe, settling in Finland with his fourth wife.

In 1997 he returned to Cornwall and to exhibiting his paintings locally, as his reviewer writes, 'in a sense coming full circle, this popular and warm character having followed his own distinctive path.'  He died in Hayle on 22 December 2008.