In 1911 he continued his education in Zagreb, firstly at the private painting school of Tomislav Krizman, where he met fellow students Vilko Gecan and Milivoj Uzelac.
In 1920, Varlaj's work also appeared at an international exhibition in Geneva, and from 1921, he was a member of the Independent Group of Artists[1] (Grupa nezavisnih umjetnika) whose other members were Ljubo Babić, Vladimir Becić, Jozo Kljaković, Frano Kršinić, Ivan Meštrović, Jerolim Miše, Marin Studin and Zlatko Šulentić.
[3] In 1934, by then a well-known painter, Varlaj completed his official training by graduating from the Academy of Fine Arts in the class of Marino Tartaglia.
From 1921 to 1925, the group organized numerous exhibitions at home and abroad, making a great contribution to the development of visual arts in Croatia.
From 1920 to the early 1940s he produced numerous landscapes in watercolour and oils of Gorski Kotar, the Kvarner region,[2] and Dalmatian scenes from Korčula, Dubrovnik, and Vis.