The English capital offered him the opportunity to pursue advanced training as a pianist at the Royal Academy of Music under the direction of Oscar Beringer.

Returning to his native island in 1924, Wendt did not practise law much, although he was registered as a lawyer at the Supreme Court of Ceylon.

Lionel Wendt became the figurehead of the only circle of avant-garde artists of the time, which included his childhood friend, the painter George Keyt.

In his autobiography, the poet Pablo Neruda, Chilean consul in Colombo in 1928–1929, writes: "I found out that the pianist, photographer, critic, and cinematographer Lionel Wendt was the central figure of a cultural life torn between the death rattles of the Empire and a human appraisal of the untapped values of Ceylon.

They felt deeply that the future of their country could not be built by ignoring an ancient heritage or by rejecting the Western way of life, but rather by merging the two.

[7] In the early 1930s, while continuing to give piano recitals, Lionel Wendt turned to what became his great passion, photography.

His first solo exhibition took place in 1938 at the Camera Club in London, at the invitation of Ernst Leitz, the inventor and manufacturer of the Leica.

He reconciles knowledge and interest in modern artistic trends (Magritte, Man Ray, Chirico...) with a desire to represent traditional Ceylonese life.

The aim was to bring together independent artists such as George Keyt, Ivan Peries, Harry Pieris and Justin Daraniyagala, now recognised as among the best representatives in Asia of the modernism of the mid-20th century.