A schoolteacher in his youth, Paul joined in the Swiss professional Officers Corps as a captain, studied in Switzerland and the USA,
and ascended through the ranks to that of Major-General. He was also the Swiss military diplomat (defense attache) to Scandinavia in Stockholm and the Soviet Union in Moscow, where he was witness to the collapse of the USSR.

He retired in 1995 and began to create artworks with mixed media. He moved to the Cape, "the paradise in the cul-de-sac of Africa", in 1997, and lives in Simonstown, where he is a member
of the Simonstown Art Group. Oils are his favourite medium; he also creates etchings, as well as sketches of places he has visited on his travels. He paints mainly what he thinks and dreams. He also writes poetry, and "other things", although he finds colour
and form to be a more powerful means of expression.

He has attended workshops with Jean Campbell, Ryno Swart, Greg Kerr and Christine Scheid, and exhibited along alongside other artists in Switzerland, with Simonstown Art Group, with Greg Kerr's workshop in Kirstenbosch, and elsewhere.

In January 2011 he had a Retrospective Exhibition in Simonstown which was opened by Peter Clarke.