In 1975 he won a modern art scholarship from the Institute of Cultural Affairs in Chicago. This enabled him to travel extensively in the USA and Canada. He was also able to further develop his skills as a talented contemporary Scottish art painter.

When Davy returned from his travels he successfully taught contemporary art in Scottish schools, and throughout this time continued to paint and exhibit his paintings along with other leading Scottish artists in both Scottish art galleries and modern British art galleries further afield.

Davy eventually left teaching to concentrate full time as a Scottish contemporary artist. Over the years his paintings, with their very distinctive style of modern Scottish art, have consistently grown in popularity. For much of this time Davy  has been inspired by his love of the Scottish landscape and recently this much acclaimed Scottish artist has started to produce equally compelling paintings of France and Spain.

Other influences on Davy's paintings have been travels to Iceland, as well as issues closer to home such as acid rain and forestry encroachment. Frequent trips to Cornwall have also nurtured an interest in the paintings of the modern British St. Ives abstractionists.