Paul was born in Dartford, Kent. He could draw and paint before he started school. He went to Oxford University on an art scholarship, but left when he got work.

He designed his first record cover for Fats Domino in 1967. He became the unofficial designer for Liberty Records, and then was the original Art Director for Time Out magazine. He met the group Genesis through their producer and did the covers of their albums: Trespass, Nursery Cryme & Foxtrot. Other Charisma bands that he did the covers for were Van der Graaf Generator, Peter Hammill solo and Lindisfarne.

Whitehead emigrated to the US and settled in Los Angeles, where he did album covers for Tom Fogerty, and Earth, Wind and Fire.

The Guinness Book of Records credits him with the largest mural in the world. He did the first Drive Through Art Gallery. He has done corporate logos, and for three years was creative services director at the Universal Studios Theme Park. He has written film scripts, and written music.

His feminine doppelganger is Trisha Van Cleef, who is also an artist but who does abstract art. Sometimes Paul and Trisha exhibit their work together.

Paul is a self-taught award winning artist and photographer.  Travelling extensively from a young age has provided Paul with the inspiration and material for his photography and art making.  He paints 'plein air' whenever possible, but equally enjoys time in his studio where he works in various mediums, including oil, gouache, watercolour and charcoal.  He is delighted to be back at home in Australia, painting from his studio in Port Elliot.
    
Paul Whitehead is an accomplished artist who has had his paintings displayed all over the world. To Genesis fans; however, he is best known for the creation of classic Genesis album covers like Trespass, Nursery Cryme and Foxtrot.

World of Genesis sat down for a quick chat with Mr. Whitehead on July 25, 2001 to talk about his recent Italian exhibition, his work on the Genesis album covers, his current projects and more.  

PW: Well, the reason that didn't happen, was because I moved to The States. In those days around 1974, there wasn't any FedEx, there wasn't any e-mail, we didn't have a lot of the things we have now. Long distance telephone calls were very expensive and there wasn't even fax machines. So, moving 8,000 miles to California kind of made it very hard to work together.  

WOG: You got involved with the Armando Gallo book as well. How did that come about?
World of Genesis: I understand that you recently re-created the album artwork for the three Genesis album covers you designed. What made you decide to take on that task, and what happened to the originals?  

"...The originals were stolen from Charisma (Records). When Charisma was sold to Virgin (Records), and the staff of Charisma got wind of the sale coming down, they just looted the place. So, no one knows where the originals are. They just disappeared."
 
Paul Whitehead: Well, the originals were stolen from Charisma (Records). When Charisma was sold to Virgin (Records), and the staff of Charisma got wind of the sale coming down, they just looted the place. So, no one knows where the originals are. They just disappeared.