Brian Hinton was born in London and educated in Norfolk and as a state scholar at Cambridge School of Art.

Hinton's father was the theatre doctor in Hunstanton and Brian took full advantage of complimentary tickets to attend the nightly shows and to be accepted backstage, thereby nurturing an enduring fascination with vaudeville and the theatre, and greatly influencing periods of his work.

Hinton is himself an accomplished instrumentalist and pianist and his joint talents as an artist and as a musician served him well whilst travelling extensively over several years in Europe, Asia Minor, and the Near East. He worked in cafes and clubs, fingers on the piano and an eye on the entertainers and the audience for later commitment to the drawing pad. He has studied classical architecture and this interest is strongly reflected in his paintings and drawings.

Hinton has exhibited at the Royal Academy's Summer Exhibition and at the Paris Salon. He has had many one-man shows including those at The Gallery, King’s Lynn 1996-2002, the Cato Gallery, Hampstead, London in 2000, the Harbour House Gallery, Kingsbridge, Devon in 2006, and the Carter Gallery, Great Bircham, Norfolk in 2008.

Hinton’s recent distinctions include the Garrick-Milne Award Exhibition and the ‘Discerning Eye” Exhibition at the Mall Gallery, London. He is represented in many private collections in the UK, Europe, the USA and Japan, including those of the late Lady Vansittart, the Marquess of Bath, Longleat, and in collections of those associated with the theatre.