He made several study trips, first to France from 1928 to 1929 and later to Britain, Germany, Greece, Italy, Spain and North Africa, including Egypt, 1930 and 1932, and a new journey to Paris 1937.

During the occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany, he and his wife supplied a cover-up apartment for the Norwegian resistance movement, specifically for the staff of the sabotage squad Aks 13000, for some time.

From 1947 until his death in 1974, Bast had a permanent residence in the summer at Fuglevik ved Rakke in Brunlanes, south of Larvik, where he also had his studio.

[4] He completed a wide range of public memorials and decorations in a quiet style, characterized by a French-dominated class flight of sculptural tradition.

The statues were modeled after the figurehead of the Norwegian bark Dictator, home ported in Moss, which foundered and sank in the Graveyard of the Atlantic off the coast of Virginia Beach on 27–28 March 1891.