Large parts of childhood were spent in New York City where his father, Even Soot, worked as an engineer.
They first lived in Lillehammer before they moved to Christiania (now Oslo) where Soot continued his artistic education at the Royal Drawing School and at the painting school of Knud Bergslien.
Endowments gave Soot the opportunity to establish residence in Paris, where he was featured at the Exposition Universelle where he was honored with a silver medal.
From 1888 to 1890, Soot settled on a farm south of Lillehammer where he captured local images and landscapes.
Among Soot paintings from this period is Velkommen (‘’Welcome’’), now owned by the National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design, perhaps the most widely recognized of his works.