The first time I heard of Paul was when I was an adolescent in the late 1970s. Together with thousands of other Italian fans, I met Paul’s surrealistic art by way of his album covers for Genesis, Van Der Graaf Generator, Le Orme, and all the music that we started to love in those days. I remember that we often used to meet on rainy afternoons to listen to those fabulous, beautiful musicals. We often spent all of our savings in order to buy those fabulous discs, not only for the pleasure of listening to them as great music treasures, but also to observe, detail by detail, all the particulars painted on the covers.

Our eyes were finding personages like “the lady dressed in red with a fox’s head,” “little Cynthia playing cricket over little Henry’s head,” the apocalyptic visions inside the songs of Van Der Graaf Generator’s albums, and the lost astronauts screaming their fall in the deep universe... In a word, we have discovered a new mythology.

The music went hand in hand with imagination, which today is difficult to explain to those who listen only to MP3s, Spotify, and all that is called digital streaming or downloads. Music that is sold—often—without related album covers or any pictures. I have met Paul many times since 2001; I was the manager of his first two exhibitions in Turin in 2003 and 2006, and supported his participation as a special guest at Viterbo in 2012 during a great festival of prog rock music. Since then, Paul was required in Naples in 2013 and again in Viterbo, where a great commission for him was planned.

Every time I meet Paul, it doesn’t seem real to have in front of me the person who had illustrated the musical passions of my youth. Near him, I will always be the same teenager who spent a lot of money to purchase those gems covered by his paintings.

Born in 1945 in Dartford, Kent, a region of England, Paul studied his artistic studies at Oxford University. Searching for new perspectives, he transferred to London in 1969, and together with other colleagues, he founded the magazine “Time Out,” where he filled the role of art director. Paul’s first album cover was commissioned by Andrew Lauder of Liberty Records for Fats Domino, after which he immediately became one of the most requested artists by London recording companies. In 1974, Paul moved to Los Angeles in the USA, where he realized that everything was much more fruitful for his work.

This consideration gave origin to his path oriented to a form of “Big Art.” In 1977, Paul created the “Eyes and Ears Foundation,” which was an aggregation of artists and writers still existing today. Developing the “Big Art” concept, he founded the company “Mega Arts,” which specialized in posters and murals. Currently, Paul lives in Los Angeles and has followed and supervised the production of more than 165 album covers and promotional material for a great bunch of “Progressive Rock” bands around the world. Having an artwork from Paul, the good attention from customers, and the media is always guaranteed. From the Seventies we got the masterpieces painted for Genesis, VDGG, Le Orme, Renaissance, High Tide, Peter Hammill, and many others...since then we have gotten new masterpieces for Eclat, Alex Carpany, Barock Project, Submarine Silence, and Shaun Guerin.

In the past, in 2007, Paul was required one more time by Genesis Management for a renewed range of merchandising destined for the band’s world tour of the same year. This is the chance to create new scenes and the revision of his famous personages like the “Fox Woman” and “Cynthia.”

More commitment was added in 2020 when Genesis scheduled its last world tour called “The Last Domino.” Paul was present with his artworks for the last time as proof of his deep link with this band.

For the last 25 years, Paul has always been invited to the most important prog rock festivals in the world, having his “mobile gallery” near the official merchandise corners. Needless to say, many artists request to have his artwork for their music, and those who are always lucky to find a ready and ever-available person, and his prices are always good and affordable.

Only artwork for music? No. We have notice about a forthcoming commission from Viterbo (near Rome), where Paul was asked to do a “fresco” inside a historical church. Paul is also engaged with social problems, and everything is related to the human being. A remarkable work is the bigger composition of eight paintings joined together as a modern polyptych entitled “The Eight Deadly Sins,” where the eighth sin is “The Religion.” Other paintings are provoking as well, and we recommend visiting his website to watch them. Another curious fact is the strange collaboration of Paul with his “female” alter ego: a modern artist called Trisha Van Cleef…but this is another story.