He studied under Julian Rossi Ashton at the famous Sydney Art School in the old Queen Victoria Building; and later in London and Paris.
A turning point in Lawrence’s life, he was introduced to a new world of art and to other aspiring artists who motivated and influenced his career.
He remained there until 1926 moving to "the more lucrative post of commercial designer at Paramount Films Art Department at Surry Hills.
Working and studying in Sydney, he eventually married, raised a family and launched his twin careers as both commercial artist, and as a landscape and urban scene painter.
His depictions of industrial cities, their railways, their narrow streets and tenement houses, are painted with a sensitivity normally reserved for rural landscapes.
George Lawrence’s first one-man exhibition was held at the Macquarie Galleries in 1945 and opened by his lifetime friend and mentor William Dobell.
The exhibition, held prior to his first European trip, mentions a wintry Kiama landscape and the artist's fidelity of observation for scene and mood.
Of particular note is how Lawrence, whether painting country buildings or ragged trees is able to capture how "beauty may lurk in the slums, the railway marshalling yards on a wet day, or in the smoky industrial reaches of Sydney Harbour.
"[5] An exhibition in Adelaide in 1953 provided evidence of the artistic influences brought to bear on Lawrence’s painting and his position in Australian art.
His collection of recent Australian and European paintings included nineteen works on subjects ranging from the Sydney waterfront and city, to the south coast beaches and the Jindabyne area in the Snowy Mountains.
The painter and art critic Geoffrey De Groen wrote that Lawrence’s impressionism was now worn out, academic, and enslaved to tradition.
"[8] De Groen wrote that Lawrence seemed to paint from his heart and not his head, and the exhibition included scenes from Australia and his last trip to Europe.
The exhibition coincided with the publication George Lawrence: text on the artist's life by Roland Wakelin, published by Legend Press.
Six years after his death, the "highest price recorded for the artist is $20,000 for Sydney Weather, 1950", sold by auction house Christie's in October 1987.