Unfortunately due to financial constraints this was not possible[3] so Robinson held a succession of menial jobs such as dish-washer and pearl-diver until, the age of twenty when he began an apprenticeship in welding.
Bomb Crater in Eglington Street and Fire at the International were accepted from the 1,300 works submitted to the juried exhibition and went on display at Belfast Museum and Art Gallery.
[3] They were later amongst twelve works including Romeo Toogood's Gleno and James McCord's McAdam's Farm, forwarded to London for inclusion in the Civil Defence Exhibition on Bond Street that summer.
[8] The Council for the Encouragement of Music and the Arts sponsored a group exhibition in the textile business of William Ewart & Sons on Bedford Street in Belfast in 1944 when Robinson showed alongside Colin Middleton, George Campbell, Gerard Dillon and Sidney Smith.
Robinson took his family across Europe and spent some time in Paris where he befriended Raoul Dufy and he lived in Spain on the same street as Joan Miró.
The gallery owner and dealer Hugh Charlton who was amongst the earliest to recognise Robinson's worth commented on his internationalism a few days before the artist's death:"He is very concerned about Chernobyl, Northern Ireland and any human rights issues.
The exhibition was visited by the cast of Sadlers Wells Opera Company, when the mezza-soprano singer Anna Pollak, who, like Robinson had no formal training, purchased one of his works.
[12] Robinson also arranged an exhibition of Ulster peasant art at Mills and Gray's Gallery on Wellington Street in Belfast in November 1948.
[13] By the end of the 1940s Robinson had become an established artist, lauded by the young regionalist poet and founding member of CEMA, John Hewitt, and he was an active figure on the Belfast Arts scene.
Amongst his social group numbered local artists such as Alicia Boyle, Rowel Friers, John Luke, and Colin Middleton and writers such as Roy McFadden and W R Rodgers.
One of his closest friends was his mentor, the Ukrainian artist Paul Nietsche who is credited with not only improving Robinson's technique but more importantly for introducing him to the influential art collector Zoltan Lewinter-Frankl.
[14] In Green's 1945 novel Odd Man Out the character of Lukey Mulquin, a young and eccentric portrait painter was inspired by the ebullience of Markey Robinson.
[16] Throughout the 1950s Robinson turned his hand to toymaking, supplying leprechauns, fairies and goblins for sale by his friend Mrs Ann Stonley, a Scottish native living in Belfast.
[21] Robinson died intestate leaving at least eleven bank accounts where he had deposited large sums of cash, totalling in excess of £200,000.