He showed his work in numerous exhibits. Boynton, (Ralph Stackpole, Bernard Zakheim, Victor Arnautoff), among others, went to Mexico to study with Diego Rivera. During this period he sought and procured many commissions both public and private. It could be said luck fell his way because he had a knack for being in the right place at the right time. Anthony W. Lee writes about Boynton:...a number of younger painters vied for leadership. Two of them - Ray Boynton and Maynard Dixon - were able to attach themselves to a specific group of patrons...Dixon and Boynton, who had played absolutely no role in 1915, gained an advantage by recognizing the new social and political requirements and mapping their artistic interests onto them." In addition, San Francisco, from the end of World War I to the beginning of World War II, had many left-leaning artists. It also had union riots and demonstrations - supposedly in support of Communist ideals. Boynton, although sympathetic, was far enough removed so that his name was untarnished and he brought stability to the art scene when supporters of the artists began to grow tired of extremism by the mid-to-late 1930s.