Irvine was brought up in the mid-west prairies and then moved to Chicago where he attended evening classes at the Art Institute. He first came to Lyme in the summer of 1914 and a few years later purchased a home there. Connecticut was inspring to Irvine, and in 1917 he exhibited New England landscapes at the Art Institute of Chicago. Later he spent a year in England, Wales and Brittany and exhibited the work he did there in the galleries of Carson, Pirie & Scott (1924). Irvine was a technical innovator. He exhibited acquaprints at Milch Galleries (1927) and prismatic paintings at Grand Central Galleries (1930).
Irvine served as president of the Chicago Society of Artists, director of the Chicago Watercolor Club and was an honorary member of the Chicago Society of Etchers.
His awards include: the Martin B. Cahn Prize (1912), a silver medal from the San Francisco Exposition (1915), the Clyde M. Carr Prize (1915), the William Seaton Prize (1921), and the Noel Flagg Prize (1928).