Here she met leading artists of the time, including Robert Medley and Terry Frost, they encouraged Marie to apply to Chelsea School of Art, where in 1956 she was accepted.
Walker Last left Yorkshire to take up her place at the Chelsea College of Arts where she was taught by Vivian Pitchforth in the late 1950s.
Walker Last shared a studio with the Guyanese artist Aubrey Williams for several years before returning to Yorkshire to marry local solicitor Tom Last.
She met Arthur Kitching, the curator of the Manor House Museum, Ilkley, who encouraged her painting and in 1964 offered her the chance of her first Yorkshire solo exhibition.
[12] On her death the major part of the personal art collection of Tom and Marie Last were left to the Stanley and Audrey Burton Gallery including works by Alfred Wallace and Ben Nicholson which were acquired with the help of Tom's colleague the Yorkshire solicitor and art collector Cyril Reddihough.