Paul Binnie was born at Airthrey Castle, Scotland in 1967 and lived in Alloa, Central Scotland until 1985. He then attended Edinburgh University and Edinburgh College of Art, taking his MA (Fine Art) in 1990. From then until the spring of 1993 he lived in Paris where he worked mostly in oils and watercolours, painting figure subjects and occasional landscapes.
He began to collect Japanese Woodblock Prints in the late 1980s on a summer trip to Paris, and his extended stay in France allowed him to expand his collection and his knowledge of the subject. It was this interest in Japanese Prints along with a desire to understand the methods of their production that prompted him to move in March 1993 to Tokyo. He there sought training in the techniques of block print-making. Unable to enter the Yoshida studio, his first choice for training, due to the illness of Yoshida Toshi, he was advised to contact Seki Kenji. Kenji had been the head printer at Doi-Hangaten and Binnie worked with him for several years developing his own block printing style.
Binnie moved to London in late 1998 after almost 6 years in Japan and conintued to make prints after a brief hiatus, as well as painting and drawing in a variety of media. He now travels to Japan regularly and exhibits his prints and paintings worldwide, often with galleries and dealers specialising in Japanese Prints. He regularly participates in the CWAJ exhibition in Tokyo each autumn and produces several new editions of woodblock prints each year.
Further biographical information can be found at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Binnie
http://www.artelino.com/articles/paul-binnie.asp
http://www.sarugallery.com/default.php?L=7
