Paul Reynard was born in Lyon, France in 1927. In his teens, he apprenticed with the painter Claude Idoux from whom he also learned stained glass and fresco painting. After the end of the war, Reynard moved to Paris where he studied for three years with Fernand Léger and Jean Souverbie at the Académie des Beaux-Arts.

In the mid fifties, in collaboration with architects, designers, and crafts-people, Reynard designed and installed the stained glass windows in the rebuilt Church of St. Rémy in Baccarat. He subsequently created stained glass windows in churches throughout France and exhibited his paintings in Lyon and Paris.

During the early to mid sixties, Reynard taught drawing at the Ecoles d’Art Américaines at Fontainebleau, and at schools in Besançon and Angers. During that time, he presented a one-man show in Turin.

In 1968, Reynard moved to New York where his focus turned towards painting. During the next thirty years, in addition to designing and painting numerous murals, his paintings, banners and drawings were given several solo shows in New York and around the United States and Canada. During this time, he taught drawing at the Parsons School of Design, Pratt Institute, and finally at The School of Visual Arts where he worked until his retirement in 2002. In the 1970s and ‘80s, Reynard also participated in numerous lecture workshops in San Francisco.

From 2003 until shortly before his death in the fall of 2005, Reynard worked closely with the editors of the book about his work in the United States, Paul Reynard: Works in America (Seattle: Dancing Camel Editions, 2010).