[citation needed] At the onset of World War II he put his career on hold in order to join the Finnish Army.
After the war, he studied with European artists in Stockholm, before immigrating to Toronto, Ontario, Canada, in 1951, with his wife Eva Forsberg and their two daughters Inger and Marianne.
He joined the Art Guild of York-Scarborough and studied under artists like Thomas Frederick Haig Chatfield and Arnold Benjamin Hodgkins.
[5] Strandberg was a plein air landscape painter who painted in oils, using a palette knife of his own design.
Strandberg toured Canada, the United States and Europe on solo exhibitions, as well as participating in several art exhibitions, such as The World of Arts and Crafts, United Artists, and The Artists Touring Association,[7] even living in the US for a few years.