During a trip to Port-au-Prince, he met Pierre Eugene, who secured him a position as night watchman at the Center d’Art. He began to paint, using material left over by the painters at the Center. He became so enamored of painting that he began to neglect his work. Painting has enabled Auguste to express his sensibilities by the fire still painfully present in his memory.

For ten years he studied with the painter Nehemy Jean, but in 1974 he altered his style and began painting scenes of Haitian life, the way he "sees it in dream". Andre Malraux, in his book "l’Intemporel", refers to his style as ‘raw art’. Auguste is featured in La Peinture Haitienne, as well as other reference books on Haitian art.