He started exhibiting in 1922, and in 1924 he took a job as an artist with the Railways Advertising Branch.
[1] He rose to be head of the school in 1937 and became known for innovative programs integrating the visual and performing arts.
[1] His students in this period included Colin McCahon and Doris Lusk.
[1] In 1943, he became a full-time art lecturer at Dunedin Training College, where he again introduced educational innovations.
She had been secretly fostered, with no birth registration, and discovered only late in life that her parents were Grace Blundell Maple (sole heir to the Maple Furnishing millions) and Elidor Campbell, a son of the third Earl of Cawdor.