Paul Cavell was born in Melbourne in 1946 and studied architecture in the mid-sixties at the University of Melbourne. He transferred to the RMIT to complete a Diploma of Illustration and the Art of the Book, and worked as a graphic designer for CSIRO and the Department of Overseas Trade. He taught graphic design, etching, screen printing and linocut at Geohagen College in the 1970s.
In 1983, Paul married artist Vicky Taylor and they set up the Peel St Print Room in Carlton and Wahroonga Print workshop and studio in Fitzroy with classes in etching and facilities for printmakers. They moved to Castlemaine in 1985.

Paul Cavell’s work can only be described as a symphony of detail; as in orchestral music, in his drawings with black pen and watercolour there is so much to read in each ‘score’ of storytelling ‘notes’. His etchings, lithographs, linocuts and woodcuts are meticulously drawn; his vibrant, full-of-movement acrylic and oil paintings celebrate primary colours or earthy tones boldly, with a sense of theatre and the architectural.
As a painter and printmaker, Paul has been prolific, exhibiting widely since 1973. Solo exhibitions include at the Wiregrass Gallery, Eltham, and Wallace Bros and Herons Gallery, Castlemaine. He has won a number of arts prizes. Hundreds of his works are represented in public, corporate and private collections, nationally and internationally, and several regional art galleries.