Paul Powis began his art training at the Birmingham College of Art and Design, studying for a Foundation in Art and Design between 1968-69. He then went on to study at Portsmouth Polytechnic, gaining a BA Hons in Fine Art in 1973. On finishing his training as an abstract painter, Paul began lecturing, which he has continued both in London and the provinces over the last 25 years. Since 1988, he has been Senior Lecturer in Drawing & Painting at the University of Central England.

Paul Powis has also exhibited extensively since his student days and has built up an enviable international reputation as a landscape painter. With exhibitions across the country at prestigious venues such as the Mall Galleries, London, the Royal College of Art, London, and the Royal Festival Hall, London, Paul's work has also appeared at municipal museums and art galleries throughout the UK as well as America. His painting, Rape, appeared in an advert for VW, achieving worldwide recognition and being exhibited in the Museum of Modern Illustration in New York. His work has also been shown in the Best Of British Illustration exhibition for the last ten years.

Paul Powis's work is predominantly about subjective colour and vibrant mark-making, which are used in both an abstract and representational way. Paul's paintings have been published in over twenty books in the last five years and he is a regular contributor to magazines such as Artist & Illustrator. Since joining Washington Green in May 1999, he has had nine of his originals published as limited edition silkscreens. A collection of his original acrylics was also recently displayed at the Halcyon Gallery's Art In Miniature exhibition.