Ernst de Jong Studios was established in 1957 in Pretoria soon after Ernst returned from the USA, where he obtained his BA in Fine Art, Painting, and Design with distinction, and the top student award at the University of Oklahoma. ​ His studio quickly became South Africa’s foremost design studio – his designs were represented in the New York Art Directors Annual and Graphis Magazine, Zurich. His murals decorated numerous organizations across South Africa. His new style in painting, derived from the American abstract expressionists and Dutch suprematists, remained greatly sought after. He played a key role in changing perceptions of South African art. He held over 50 group exhibitions and more than 50 solo shows in South Africa and internationally, including museum shows in Europe and Scandinavia. He had two major solo exhibitions at the Pretoria Art Museum. In 2001, he established the Academy of Fine Art, which trained professional artists in painting and ran courses from beginners to advanced painting, recreational painting, and advanced information design programs. A unique new course entitled ARTNUCLEUS focused on nurturing the originality of gifted children, starting with non-objective images and sometimes evolving into aesthetically powerful figurative works. The professional painters from the Academy frequently exhibited in South Africa and worldwide, especially in Canada, Zambia, England, and the USA. Designers trained at the Academy filled prominent positions in major design studios and agencies both locally and internationally. In 2014, his daughter Tamara de Jong became officially associated with the Academy through her studio, de Jong Design, and served as the director of Graphic Design for the Academy. The Academy International was a truly remarkable institution, renowned in South Africa for its advanced training of professional painters and gifted children. It closed upon the passing of Ernst de Jong, aged 81, in 2016.