In 1937, Taylor and Woods established a small freelance studio in Willis St, Wellington creating a number of illustrations for the Reed Publishing Company.
As a modernist, George Woods is best known for his graphic, stylised images and is most readily contextualised alongside contemporaries Russell Clark (1905–1966) and E. Mervyn Taylor (1906–1964).
His etching Nude (c. 1939) was one of the few prints selected for inclusion in the Centennial Exhibition of International and New Zealand Art at the National Gallery in Wellington.
[4] Woods was intensely interested in Māori culture and had a keen appreciation of Polynesian art and sculpture, borne out of his travels in the region after finishing studies at the Wellington Technical College.
In the image The Battle of the Wind and Sea Gods (c. 1946), Woods depicts sinuous tension in their muscles and frames them in turbulent clouds and waves.
The scraper-board print Battle of the Wind and the Sea Gods (1945), won Woods the Esther Glen Award from the New Zealand Library Association for outstanding contribution to children's literature.