[8][9] White credited Fisher as one of her strongest influences, maintaining that he inspired her use of painting and design as a means of expressing ideas.

[10] In 1928, White graduated from Elam and became a part-time tutor at the school, teaching the junior drawing classes.

[12] During her time as a teacher, prior to her overseas travels, White had worked alongside painter John Weeks, whom she considered as a friend.

[8] As a teacher, White strongly encouraged the students to consider how light impacted the shape of a model or object.

Thematically, many of White's works have been recognized as progressive social activism, including her painting Success, which shows a man waving a money bag over a hungry family, and her painting War Makers exhibited between the World Wars, which shows prosperous older, powerful figures mocking a young soldier.

[13] War Makers is currently on display in the Modern Women: Flight of Time exhibition at Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki.

[15] She continued to be viewed as a relatively conservative artist, even in her own opinion, until her work was reappraised through solo exhibitions in 1977 and, after her death, in 1994.

Recently, her work has been reevaluated, and critics have noted the considerable range of styles she pursued during her artistic career, including classical, decorative, social realist, expressionist, fanciful, and pastoral.