Leaving the industry he joined Plessey Telecoms by which time he was developing his artistic talents with the hope of becoming a professional magazine illustrator supplementing his income by selling his paintings at the Sunday Painters Exhibition on Bayswater Road, London.

By the time the council had met and discussed the problem the exhibition was finished but the publicity that it had generated catapulted Olley's career forward allowing him to leave the telecoms industry in 1974 and become a full-time professional painter selling his work with like- minded artists on the Armstrong Bridge, Newcastle every Sunday.

The 1984/5 coal strike was a disaster for the business and as orders dried up he closed the factory and relocated to South Shields where he opened "The Gambling Man Gallery" that became a popular attraction of the town's Catherine Cookson Trail.

In the following years he worked on some large projects like sculptures of John Simpson Kirkpatrick, the towns WW1 Hero of Gallipoli and Stan Laurel for Persimmon Homes sited in Dockwray Square North Shields and unveiled by MP Mr Neville Trotter.

The largest painting displayed, "Off the Way" (Three miners lifting a coal truck back onto the track) is featured on the front cover of the 2002 publication "Shafts of Light" Mining Art in the Great Northern Coalfield.

"Toil, Sweat, Water and Dust" was opened by the late Mr David Guy, President, DMA & NUM North East Area.

Both his great grandfathers Robert Smith, an illiterate miner, born in Coundon and Peter Greenwell a publican lived in Croxdale, managing several public houses in the area including the Britannia Inn in the City.

The 4x3 metre panel depicting the links with South Shields, Arganda del Rey (Spain) and Djeol (Mauritania) was unveiled by Madam le Maire, Nicol RIVOIRE in 2003.

Olley visited Greece, the birthplace of Aesop and researched almost six hundred fables, produced many rough sketches and in the space of twelve weeks completed forty works to be exhibited.

The theme of the 4 x 1.5-metre bas relief wall metallic finish panel was health, care and water from Celtic times to the present incorporating the history of the borough, titled, "Salus Curatio et Aqua."

The statue that had survived the earth quake that devastated the foundry and surrounding of Sichuan in May finally arrived in the UK after a 5.000-mile journey was unveiled 4 September that year by Nancy Wardell, Stan's niece to the applause of "Sons of the Desert" the international Laurel and Hardy appreciation society.