After returning to Alberta in 1930, Richard resumed his former career as a trapper. He made hundreds of sketches during his long wilderness journeys. He would depict landscapes and the camps of prospectors and trappers. This was an intensely productive period, when his unique style began to emerge. With little money, often he would draw on butcher’s paper cut into sheets. Richard sold his first paintings in 1943. His first exhibition at L’Art français gallery in Montreal was a great success, and his reputation began to grow. In 1948 and 1951 Richard was employed as a government consultant on expeditions to the far north of Canada. He produced large landscapes between 1950 and 1965 based on memories of these journeys. His later work mostly depicted the Charlevoix region around Baie-Saint-Paul. Richard often exhibited in Quebec City and Montreal. The Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec held a solo exhibition of his work in 1967, and a retrospective ten years later. He received the Order of Canada in 1973. In 1980 Richard was elected a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts. René Richard died on 31 March 1982 at Baie Sant-Paul, aged 86.