He was educated at Marlborough College in Wiltshire, then briefly flirted with medicine and architecture at Liverpool University before pursuing an artistic career.

The Nicholsons' dedication to his work had a great influence and exhibited together at the Beaux Arts Gallery in April–May 1927 and subsequently painted together in Cumberland and Cornwall in 1928.

[4] In April 1929, Wood held a solo exhibition at Tooth's Gallery in Bond Street, London where he met Lucy Wertheim at a private view.

[3] For his part Wood apparently appreciated the support, telling Wertheim at her birthday party that: I know that my future as a painter from now on will be bound up with your own, and I shall become great through you!

Gandarillas, a married homosexual fourteen years older than Wood, lived a glamorous life partly financed by gambling.

In 1927 his plans to elope and marry heiress Meraud Guinness were frustrated by her parents whereupon he required emotional support from Winifred Nicholson.

On 21 August, he travelled to meet his mother and sister for lunch at The County Hotel in Salisbury and to show them a selection of his latest paintings.