In 1924 Maud Sherwood was elected to the committee of the Australian Watercolour Institute in Sydney. She was the only woman on the committee. In April 1925 she returned to Wellington and held a solo exhibition with the New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts. She returned to Australia but left in 1926, and travelled, worked and exhibited in Italy, France, Spain and Tunisia. Despite exhibitions with many of the leading art societies she was financially dependent on an allowance from her husband. In 1932 she exhibited at the Royal Academy of Arts.

Maud Sherwood returned to Australia in 1933. After her seven-year working tour overseas, exhibitions in Sydney and Melbourne fetched plaudits from critics which placed her amongst the leading Australian watercolourists. In 1933 she was elected to the Society of Artists, Sydney. She received a Coronation Medal in 1937 and an Australian 150th Anniversary Exhibition Medal in 1938. In 1937 she was foundation member of the Australian Academy of Art and exhibited at the National Centennial Exhibition of New Zealand Art in 1940.

Sherwood remained in Australia where she continued to work until her death in 1956.