Matthew Phinn studied Fine Art at the University of Leeds, after which he moved to Japan. He worked for seven years in the Hiroshima area as an artist and painting teacher.
Phinn's watercolours are characterised by their large scale and technique drawn from both traditional English landscape and elements of Japanese art such as Sumie ink painting, which he studied in Saitama Prefecture.
Phinn is a permanent member of the Japanese National Watercolour Society. He was awarded the International Cultural Foundations prize in Hiroshima in 2006, and the Certificate of Merit in Tokyo in 2008. He has also been shortlisted three times for the "E no Machi" Onomichi City exhibition near Fukuyama, Japan.
Phinn has been shortlisted three times for the Sunday Times Watercolour Competition and exhibited with the Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolour, the Royal Society of Marine Artists and the Royal Institute of Oil Painters. Last year he won "The Bath Prize" with his painting "Directions". He has regularly exhibited in Japan as well as California, Ireland, Bermuda and the UK.
He lives with his wife in London.