Paul Oxborough — Paintings Photographed by Mitch Rossow

Fine Art Portrait and Interior Painter · Excelsior, Minnesota

Paul G. Oxborough is a Minnesota-born oil painter whose figure, portrait, and interior genre scenes have earned him an international reputation built on close observation and a painter’s instinct for light. In his own words: “Almost all my work comes from real life. I paint things I actually see — my wife Jenny on a train, my daughter waking up, a guy in a museum. I paint the way I think people see: not with photographic accuracy, but with impressions. The impression of light hitting your eyes; the impression of color you see at a glance.”

He received the BP Portrait Award at the National Portrait Gallery in London on four separate occasions. He was selected for the inaugural Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition at the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C., and again in 2016. His work has been featured in ARTnews, Fine Art Connoisseur, American Art Collector, American Artist Magazine, and CNN. His paintings are held in public collections at the Minnesota State Capitol, Balliol College at Oxford University, and the New Salem Museum in Massachusetts.

His most recent body of work focuses on bar and restaurant interiors from world travels — the King Cole Bar at New York’s St. Regis, Bemelmans in Manhattan, Caffè Florian in Venice, the Savoy in London, the Palace Bar in Tokyo. A 2025 solo exhibition at Cavalier Gallery in New York presented more than 30 new paintings. Among his earlier commissions: the official portrait of Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton, and a portrait of Chuck Close selected for the inaugural Outwin Boochever Competition and exhibited at the British and Scottish National Portrait Galleries.

Paul was referred to this studio by Joe Paquet and has been bringing new work regularly ever since.

Works at Cavalier Gallery · Collins Galleries · pauloxborough.com · Instagram

Paul’s paintings — loose impressionistic brushwork, light off bar mirrors and café windows, the intimacy of scenes caught mid-moment — require photography that holds both the energy of the paint and the subtlety of the light. Schedule your own session →

About Paul Oxborough

Paul G. Oxborough (b. 1965, Minnesota) studied at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design and completed a four-year apprenticeship at Atelier Lesueur in Minneapolis under Annette LeSueur — a former student of Boston School painter Richard Lack — training in classical technique in the French tradition.

He has had over a dozen solo exhibitions and participated in group exhibitions at the British National Portrait Gallery, the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, and the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery. His awards include the BP Portrait Award at the National Portrait Gallery London (2005, 2007, 2009, 2013), Best in Show and First Place in Figure Painting from the Art Renewal Center, Grand Prize from the American Society of Portrait Artists, and First Place in the Artist’s Magazine Portrait Competition.