Pocock ended his seafaring life in 1778 and in 1780 and began to enter paintings to the Royal Academy annual exhibition. The President of the RA, Sir Joshua Reynolds encouraged Pocock to draw from nature. In tandem with oil painting Pocock developed his watercolour landscape skills. His Bristol watercolours show the city's shipping but also its rural outskirts and views of the Avon, taking full advantage of the dramatic scenery of the Gorge and the surrounding woods. This 1785 view over King's Weston shows the ships in the distance awaiting a favourable tide. Later, after he moved to London in 1789, Pocock was a founder member, with John and Cornelius Varley, of the Society of Painters in Watercolour and exhibited 17 watercolours at their first exhibition in 1805.