Mainly a sculptor and artist in mixed media, Rayner did not enter Dundee College of Art until he was 29, graduating in drawing and painting five years later. Prior to that he was a journalist for a dozen years, had worked in New Zealand in tourism and on a cargo ship. From the late 1970s Rayner acquired many awards. These included one Major Scottish Arts Council Award in 1983, a second two years later; not long after, he had one of the Council’s Artist in Industry placements; then in 1988 he won a £10,000 sculpture commission from the Scottish Development agency for Dundee waterfront. Ships and the sea are a key theme in Rayner’s work. This he showed widely in Scotland and had a solo exhibition at Compass Gallery, Glasgow in 1982, another at 369 Gallery in Edinburgh in 1983.