Cook was born in Cheltenham and trained in London at St Martin's School of Art and the Royal College of Art. He came first to Cornwall to stay permanently in 1985. With his first wife he had one son, Theo.

His second wife was the late artist Dr Partou ZIA, with whom he found great contentment and inspiration, and their artistic partnership proved equally creative to their work. Richard Cook's work has been exhibited in Germany and New York and commissioned internationally for public buildings.  His paintings are generally quite large in scale, and painted with his fingers rather than brushes (he does have one brush!). His claim is that he works very quickly, after long spells of contemplation about the images he intends to produce, and the feel of the paint is part of the intensity given to the piece. His home studio, once seen, is never forgotten, so thickly caked, cave-like, with paint are the floors and walls.

Though he lives and works in Newlyn, he exhibits widely in solo and mixed and group shows, increasingly in London with Art First, Cork Street, where both he and Partou have consistently shown work (www.artfirst.co.uk).

Latterly, Cook's large paintings, heavily freighted with paint, but lighter in tone and character than previously, were on show at The Exchange Gallery in Penzance. (2010)