[citation needed] Throughout the 1950s, he contributed witty line illustrations, decorations and cartoons to Lilliput, for which he also painted several covers in colour, Punch, Picture Post, Scope, and Good Housekeeping, for which he drew a regular series entitled "Semolina Silkpaws".
[citation needed] In the early 1960s, he moved with his wife Iris to St Ives in Cornwall, so he could diversify from "commercial art" into painting and other endeavours.
As well as developing his noted series of surreal paintings in oil, which were sold through the Portal Gallery in London, he set up, with Iris, an initiative called "Studio 22".
They moved back to London in the 1970s, where Ronnie continued to paint for the Portal Gallery and provide illustrations for the Bond Street fashion emporium, Ports.
Alongside a successful series in collaboration with the poet Gavin Ewart – The Learned Hippopotamus (1986), Caterpillar Stew (1990) and Like It Or Not (1992) – he began writing children's stories as well as illustrating them.