While teaching color and design at a college of architecture, he renewed his interest in painting. He was staff artist of the campus magazine for three years at he University of San Agustin while working for his architecture degree. He then joined a local art club and started to show and sell his works of mostly landscapes, portraits and flower in transparent watercolor.
        Work assignments carried Dureza to the north and south of the country while he continued to sketch. Graduate scholarships in Urban Planning from the Rotary Foundation and Fulbright Hays brought him to the US. He continued painting to ease the rigors of academic work. A travel grant from the French government in spring of 1982 expanded his subjects and enhanced his techniques. He held his first solo show "Images de France" in Manila later that year.
        His architectural work brought Dureza to Yemen a ruggedly beautiful country by the Red Sea in 1985. With short working hours and unhampered by family responsibilities, he increased his productivity by painting in pastel. He enjoyed a great demand for his watercolors from the expatriate community of Europeans, Americans, and Japanese. When not designing buildings for his airline employer, Dureza illustrated and wrote for the in-flight magazine.