His best-known work is Madonna with Machine Gun, which belongs to the Latvian National Museum of Art in Riga.

In 1921, three years later than he should have, Kārlis Padegs enrolled in the Riga City Primary School No.1, which was headed by Valdis Zālītis.

In the last year of primary school, Kārlis Padegs was active in the Applied Arts Section of the Latvian Youth Red Cross, where he served as secretary.

It was here that Kārlis Padegs wrote an essay on the painter Jānis Rozentāls for a school event, expressing a very independent perception of art.

After graduating from primary school at the age of 16, when he was a little too old to continue his studies at secondary school, Kārlis Padegs mastered a plaster head drawing and, together with 20 other applicants, won the right to attend the first year classes of the Art Academy of Latvia at the Vilhelms Purvītis Master Workshop.