Through working as a modeller and on low relief he developed an interest in painting and furthered his studies at the Birmingham School of Art and Crafts, as well as in London and under Fleury in Paris.

Various studies exist showing he continued to draw while in the army and a fellow soldier, years later in a letter to the artist's widow, described mural decorations he painted for Christmas 1918 on the wall of a warehouse being used as a mess-hall in the deserted village of Auberchicourt, near Douai, using dry colours found in a builder's yard mixed with 'the glutinous substance you get from oatmeal porridge'.

He encouraged his students to use every sort of medium to hand, doled out fierce criticism and demanded high standards, and at the same time lectured perceptively on contemporary art movements.

He worked prodigiously during this time, exhibiting at the Royal Academy from 1925, developing his abilities as a practising artist and quickly gaining a reputation not only as a painter of portraits and children but also for the large figurative paintings of the 1930s, many of which are now in public collections.

In the introductory essay of the catalogue to the Memorial Exhibition held at the RBSA in 1965, Richard Seddon described his work as follows: 'He allowed his style to develop to the full and kept moving throughout his active life as an artist; and from the drawing and painting of a conceptual clarity based on his disciplined skill with line, he progressed to a visual intensity that synthesised light, space and tactile qualities as unified images laid on the canvas with a spontaneity and breadth unsurpassed by many of his British contemporaries.'