Paul Finn

Painter and printmaker, Paul Finn grew up in Yorkshire and studied Fine Art at Ravensbourne College of Art and postgraduate Fine Art at the Slade. He was then appointed Brinkley Fellow at Norwich School of Art. He has worked in the UK, Italy, France, the USA , South East Asia and Andalusia. He has exhibited widely and has been supported by the British Council to exhibit in Europe and the Far East. He has exhibited with the New English Art Club, The Royal Institute of Oil Painters, The Royal Institute of painters in Watercolour and The London Group. Since 2017, he has been a member of the Arborealists.
“Paul Finn’s work focuses not only on the landscapes he depicts, but on the way in which the landscape is experienced. Rather than simply assimilating and recording a scene, he places himself, his impressions and his artistic process in the foreground. In doing so, he says important things about the relationship between art and environment, man and nature, seeing and sensory, viewer and artist. “ Dr Anna Maria Barry, Oxford 2017
As he explains: “I am a landscape painter. I work from observation. I am not an en-plein air painter, nor would I claim that my work is entirely realistic. Initially, I draw from direct observation in the landscape, using ink, pencil or charcoal. Because of this, I am able to paint with a degree of freedom away from the landscape, in my studio. In this way,I try to give a deeper account of the world and my responses to it. Drawings are works in their own right and are not plans for paintings. I want to work the paintings out on the panels or canvases, and enjoy changing, reworking and repainting each work until it seems “right”.
Primarily, my interest is in the depiction and organisation of space. By this, I mean two things: the spatial divisions on the flat surface of the painting, and the illusory space created by composition, mark, colour and scale change. Ultimately, I want to recollect and recreate my initial observations and emotions which I experience in the landscape.”