[1] He and Win Pe, both born in the same year, studied under Ba Thet, who sent the two young artists to Kin Maung (Bank) (c. 1908−83) to learn about modernistic, more abstract art trends.

He and Win Pe would leave Mandalay for Rangoon in the early 1960s where they teamed up with Kin Maung Yin, the leader of the group, in the pursuit of Modernist ideas and held many exhibitions among the diplomatic community.

[1][2] The exposure to the work of Dong Kingman, the Chinese-American watercolorist, often described as an impressionist and who was one of the instructors of the Famous Artists School, influenced both Paw Oo Thet and Win Pe in a large way.

Paw Oo Thet's taste for cartoon passed over into this work also, as one of the singular marks in these watercolor paintings are the wide, exaggerated comic grins on the faces of figures.

[7] Paw Oo Thet himself differentiated between his commercial work, often executed tortuously and tediously, and his serious painting, inspired by deeper creative impulses, which flowed freely and unconsciously.

Some of his outstanding paintings in this genre are Three Blind Men (date unknown and documented only in a black and white photo), Self-Portrait in Robes (1967), Soldier Playing Guitar (1976), Royal Game Hunt (1974), Buddha and the Five Disciples (1971), Family (1979) (with much influence of Henry Moore and done in several versions), Portrait of his Father U Hla Gyi (1967), Marionette Duo (1974) and Expecting Mother (1974) (of his wife).

All of these works can be found in Ma Thanegi's Paw Oo Thett (1936–1993), His Life and His Creativity and some of them in Andrew Ranard's Burmese Painting: A Linear and Lateral History.

Paw Oo Thet's acquired a large reputation in Burma when his first one-man show, sponsored by the Burma-America Institute, an arm of the USIS, opened in Rangoon on November 22, 1963, the day of John F. Kennedy's assassination, and all the paintings sold out.

[11] Paw Oo Thet, on the other hand, like his early teacher Kin Maung (Bank), had a strong interest in modernistic forms of painting and had a close eye on these trends in the outside world.

[12] According to Sonny Nyein, a publisher and part-time sculptor who is close to the art community in Burma, "His [Paw Oo Thet's] paintings reflect the mood of the people".

[13] Ma Thanegi wrote of Paw Oo Thet, referring to his more commercial work, "He was most known for his colourful and elegantly done water-colours of Myanmar scenes which viewers and collectors from all over the world treasured, but he never felt satisfied that it was truly art born out of his feelings.