Spencer had talent as a painter of scenes of Jamaican life which, as a boy, he would sell for pocket-money in the capital of Kingston.
In the 1950s he traveled to the UK and he continued to sell his works, eventually buying a car, which became both his gallery and means of transport.
His artistic education, such as it was, consisted of frequent visits to museums and art galleries where he picked up his technique.
On returning to Jamaica in the 1970s, he started building a large house in Fisherman's Park, Long Bay, Portland.
[citation needed] From there he continued to paint figurative canvasses—seascapes, landscapes, vignettes of Jamaican life and, from the 1970s, individual character sketches.