Bell had recently returned from overseas and had brought back news of European Modernism and enthusiasm for artists such as Modigliani, Derain, Braque, Matisse and Picasso.

[7] King's painting at this time shows the influence of George Bell's style of early modernism.

Other Australian artists resident at The Abbey at that time included the painters Leonard French, Helen Marshall, James Gleeson and Noel Counihan, the sculptor Robert Klippel, and the art historian Bernard Smith.

[9] King studied drawing with Bernard Meninsky and attended print-making classes at the Central School of Arts and Crafts in London.

These works showed him to be an "astute observer", with a "keen visual eye and [a] mature sense of design, composition and colour"[10] They are now held by the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra.

[11] In Europe, King saw the work of Cubists, Surrealists and other abstract artists such as Paul Klee.

He responded to the "modernist modes involving the flattening and fragmentation of the image and the use of free-flowing line to express movement and rhythm" and particularly to the work of Georges Braque.

[14] But, for the decade after their return, most of Grahame King's time and energy was taken up with earning a living and with building their house at Warrandyte on the outskirts of Melbourne.

[16] In 1961, Vic Greenhouse, head of the art department at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) invited King to join the group of printmakers, which included Fred Williams and Hertha Kluge-Pott, who were allowed to use its printing facilities on one day per week.

Although this press was "a bit on the small side", by designing for its limitations King could make larger prints.

[19] Some years later, he acquired a larger press which "gave him scope to wield a longer, wider brush-mark on the lithographic plate".

In 1965, Dr Hoff convened a meeting of printmakers which led to the establishment of the Print Council of Australia (PCA).

During his time with the PCA, he was involved with organising its annual programmes, and with preparing and presenting exhibitions, which toured to the state capitals and to many regional towns.

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, King made several trips to the Northern Territory and Arnhem Land and later to the Great Barrier Reef.

[29] Jane Eckett says that: "For Grahame King drawing represented much more than simply a means of describing the world.

[34] Jenny Zimmer noted King's "life-long habit of making drawings and taking photographs of [natural] phenomena before returning to the studio to compose his 'abstractions'.

This is the mark of an abstractionist who is not prepared to allow pure intuition, emotion or improvisation to determine the end result.

He said of his first trip: "Looking back I realise it was tremendously important for my work, although unconscious, it somehow removed some inhibitions"[36] Later he said: "I wish I had met the East twenty years earlier - I would have learned something positive about calligraphy.

"[37] The landscape and the aboriginal art of northern Australia were another important influence on King's work after his trips there in the 1980s.

Zimmer notes that his first prints: "described the giant ant-hills, sparse vegetation and rock formations", but later he "focused his attention on the interiors of caves and rock formations and, using highly sophisticated lithographic techniques, produced his fleeting impressions of ancient Aboriginal markings.

[40] King said of this work that: "These paintings have evolved from a lifetime’s response to the study of form and colour in nature and are an attempt to express the perpetual excitement of new visual experience".

[41] King, Grahame E. (2009), A modern grand tour : Grahame King's European drawings 1947-1949 / [La Trobe University Museum of Art], exhibition at La Trobe University Museum of Art, Melbourne, 24 February - 10 April 2009, ISBN 9781921377617 Grishin, Sasha; Butler, Roger, 1948-; King, Grahame E., 1915-2008; Bright, Libby (2005), The Art of Grahame King / Sasha Grishin ; with a foreword by Roger Butler ; and contributions by Libby Bright ... [et al.], South Yarra, Vic: Macmillan Art Publishing, ISBN 1876832592{{citation}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) Alessi, Vincent.

Catalogue essay for A Modern Grand Tour: Grahame King’s European Drawings 1947-1949, exhibition at La Trobe University Museum of Art, Melbourne, 24 February - 10 April 2009.

The Art of Grahame King, with a foreword by Roger Butler and contributions by Libby Bright, Diana Davis, Caroline Field, Martin King, Anne Virgo and Jenny Zimmer, Macmillan Art Publishing, South Yarra, Vic, 2005.

An Australian Bird Watchers' Pocket Book, with drawings by Grahame King and verse by Jim Allen, Macmillan Art Publishing, South Yarra, Vic., 2001.