Paul Whitehead Prints

Most of you will know me as the artist that painted the record covers for Genesis and Van der Graaf Generator in the 70’s. My real education came in London in the sixties, a time of great change, vitality and immense creativity. I designed my first record cover in 1967 for Fats Domino and became a kind of in-house designer for Liberty Records in London. Shortly after that I was in the right place at the right time and became the original Art Director for the magazine Time Out in London, an entertainment guide to everything going on in Swinging London. Naturally every band - both the up and coming hopefuls and the already successful - came through our doors to place an ad or seeking a review of their latest LP. My design skills were often called on and then I met Genesis through their producer.

We hit it off instantly and - thanks to the visionary approach of the record company -Charisma - we were left alone to create the records and the covers of three records together with no interference. The results were Trespass, Nursery Cryme & Foxtrot, some of the most successful collaborations I have ever had working with musicians, they created the music and I made original paintings that reflected exactly the contents of the records. Other bands on Charisma that I worked with included Van der Graaf Generator, Peter Hammill on his solo projects, Lindisfarne & Trevor Bilmus. I quickly became known as the painter and designer who worked with rock bands, a nice niche to be put into I thought. Collaborations with Renaissance, IF, High Tide, Mott the Hoople, Matthews Southern Comfort, Colin Scott & Steamhammer followed.

Then I immigrated to the United States and finally settled in Los Angeles. I continued to create paintings for record covers and immediately worked with Tom Fogarty and Le Orme who came to L.A. to make Smogmagica. Most of the record cover work I have done has been for Progressive rock bands although I’ve made record covers for everything from R&B & New Age to Funk.