Throughout the 1920s and 1930s, many Queensland modernist artists painted outdoors. Vida Lahey followed this practice, and focused on the modernist interest in the urban environment, concentrating on construction sites around Brisbane, including the new City Hall. In 1931, she began a series of watercolours, which followed the construction of the Grey Street Bridge, near the present site of the Gallery of Modern Art. The bridge was renamed the William Jolly Bridge in 1955, in memory of the first Lord Mayor of Greater Brisbane.