The former Brisbane graffiti artist's art world is shaped by the expected - the Belfast Murals group and UK street artist, Banksy - and the unexpected, Australian cartoonist, Michael Leunig.

In Queensland his works is on the walls of Woolloongabba, in new hotels in Fortitude Valley, inside old buildings in Margaret Street, and on the shop walls in Toowoomba.

In Sydney, there's Fintan Magee artworks in Kings Cross, North Sydney, Leichhardt and Newtown and his work is part of the November 2013 Wonderwalls project in Woollongong.

Overseas, his works are in Beunos Aires, Bogota in Columbia, Baton Rouge, Miami, Jakarta, and he is about to head to Ireland.

Fintan Magee, 28, is still probably better known overseas than in Sydney or Brisbane, where he is being being compared with United Kingdom's acclaimed street artist Banksy.

Born in Lismore, Fintan Magee grew up in Brisbane's West End, and moved through graffiti works, to murals and comic book-inspired, eco-inspired artworks.

He moved to Sydney from Brisbane in 2012 and his most recent journey back to Brisbane - for a commissioned artwork to honour Australia Day - left a bad taste in his mouth.

In January, a "three month" temporary artwork was painted over by Brisbane City Council three weeks after Australia Day.

Fintan Magee was given a $2500 commission by the Queensland Premier's office to produce a temporary artwork work for an Australia Day artwork in South bank's Cultural Forecourt.

"They were doing a concert at South Bank and live performances and they asked me to come in and do a live painting piece for the day," he said.

The work was called "High Tide" and was painted on a ventilator shaft after the South Bank Corporation were convinced his work was not graffiti.

"I was always aware that it was going to be a temporary installation, but we talked about it and everyone seemed to think it would be there for three to six months, maybe even a year," he said.

He said he flew back from Argentina to complete the Brisbane artwork and is still annoyed nobody contacted him before his Australia Day artwork was painted over.

"And it is not everyday you get invited to paint in the Cultural Centre, of anywhere really," he said.

"And for something like that to be happening in Brisbane - even though it was not a large scale project - I was pretty excited about it."

Fintan Magee returned to Sydney, then to Toowoomba, after finishing the work and learned only afterwards, through fans on Instagram, that the work was painted over early.

Brisbane City Council said the artwork remained for three weeks and that it was always planned to be a temporary artwork.

"There was no formal timeframe agreed to for this artwork, instead the artwork was solely for the purpose of the Australia Day celebrations," a spokeswoman said.

"After the Australia Day celebrations the artwork installation was removed as per the artist's agreement with the Queensland Government for the temporary live art installation."

Fintan Magee has mixed emotions about the whole thing.

"I've been a graffiti writer for a long time so - to be honest - it is part of the ephemeral nature of putting your work on the street," he said.

"It's never going to be permanent. So you learn not to get too attached to things.

"But, at the same time, finding out that they had removed it earlier and there had been no community complaints, I was pretty upset, man.

"It was pretty crushing."

But he has moved on, painting gliding elephants in a forest on the walls of Toowoomba's shops in that city's "First Coat" exhibition in February 2014.

He says a lot of his work is influenced by the slow impacts of climate change.

"A lot of my work centres around the environment and climate change," he said.

"And a lot of people don't realise this."

This theme was part of his work at South Bank.

"I wanted some thing that tapped into the Australian ideal, which is like a family on a beach," he said.

"But it had kind of a darker undertone, in that I painted the flood plain, which is like the water coming up and there is a man who is sinking under the water, holding his daughter up so she could keep playing on the grass.

"And I guess that sort of symbolises fragility. So I guess it was a piece where our everyday life could be threatened by climate change, floods and natural disasters.

In broader sweeps, he says he is influenced by the Belfast Murals group - loyalist and republican wall murals that documented "The Troubles" in Northern Ireland.

"Definitely. I think that was probably my first contact with large scale mural work," he said.

"My first memories in Northern Ireland were probably when I was about five years old.

"I remember seeing a soldier on patrol underneath a large paramilitary mural.

"But I just remember this soldier being completely dwarfed by this giant figure."

He said the imagery was confronting for someone who lived in a calm country like Australia.

"It was also quite an intimidating image for someone that has lived a sheltered upbringing in somewhere as peaceful as Australia."

"So I became quite interested in it from an early age. I learned the impact of public art."

He namechecks Mexican social realist, Diego Rivera.

and Australian Jefferey Smart as major influences on his work.

"Now, I look a lot at the surrealists. One of my favourite artists is still Rene Magritte."

But he keeps his biggest surprise to the end.

"Do you know that cartoonist, Leunig?" he asked.

Cartoonist Michael Leunig's fragile images have been a staple of Australian life for decades.

"It just kind of speaks to me. It really is a kind of a really, simplified visual language.

"And it holds a lot of meaning to me. And I guess I like his politics and his view on the world."