[1] Whilst studying Lamb befriended the Galway writer Pádraic Ó Conaire who encouraged him to visit, and paint the West of Ireland.
In 1921, Lamb debuted at the Fortieth Annual Exhibition of Belfast Art Society with five works including A Lough Neagh Fisherman, A Northern Cross-road Dance (previously on display at the Royal Hibernian Academy in the spring of 1921),[7] and a portrait of fellow Ulster artist John Hunter.
[5] In review of Lamb's A Northern Cross-road Dance, one critic wrote,"It is a wonderfully worked out conception, instinct with life and motion, and at the same time full of inherent grace.
The critic in the Dublin Evening Telegraph was concerned by Lamb's use of colour and the modernist brushstroke,"To let a young artist loose in the West is an experiment not without its risks.
Like a child given the run of a sweet shop, he often contents himself with a hasty summary where the effect he aims at depends upon the patient working out of technical problems.
[10] In 1926 Lamb exhibited with the Radical Painter's Group, of which little is known, but amongst his fellow exhibitors were Margaret Clarke, Jack B Yeats, Leo Whelan, Patrick Tuohy, Seán Keating and Paul Henry.
[20] Lamb was amongst 540 artists from 31 countries who submitted work as part of the art competitions at the 1932 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, where he showed A Galway Fisherman.
[28] The artist returned to his birthplace for an exhibition of landscapes and figure painting at his Father's business premises on Bridge Street, Portadown in December 1948.
[29] In 1949 Lamb illustrated Máirtín Ó Cadhain's book Cre na Cille,[11] often considered one of the greatest novels written in the Irish language.
[30] Lamb's work was part of a collection sent to Boston and Ottawa by the Cultural Relations Committee in a 1950 exhibition entitled Contemporary Irish Paintings.
[31] In 1951, as part of a national celebration of the Festival of Britain,[32] fifty of Lamb's work featuring Irish scenes and people were exhibited in Portadown's town hall.
[33][34] Lamb was represented by six oils at the 1954 annual exhibition of the Royal Hibernian Academy, where he showed with fellow Ulster Academicians William Conor and Frank McKelvey.