A native of Los Angeles and BFA of Art Center College Pasadena in 1980, Paul like so many of the artists that we represent did not initially study illustration, but has brought the talents that he acquired as an advertising major to his repertoire as an illustrator.

An ardent admirer of the great poster artists of the 20th Century, Paul continues to try and connect with this historical heritage and use the attributes in a way that is meaningful with current communication trends. A great admirer of the Poster greats like, Joseph Binder, Cassandre, Lester Beall, McKnight Kauffer, Paul Rand et al and painters like Juan Gris, Stuart Davis,and Romare Bearden, he finds that their heritage still continues to influence his way of thinking and approaching a project.
Taste of the Nation / Share Our Strength / Adworks / AD Bill Cutter

His belief that "style is concept" governs his approach and means that he will change the look or feeling of a piece in order to use a language that will communicate in the most effective way. In the case of advertising projects, most usually the concept is already approved by the client by the time the art director delivers the brief, and Paul's job is to imbue the piece with a style or feeling into that will ensure that the strongest possible graphic treatment of the image evolves.

With the advent of the Digital Revolution, and all of the advantages in terms of speed and flexibility that it offers, he has felt challenged to create artwork that doesn't have a computer feel to it while at the same time taking advantage of the technology. For this reason, ideas are still sketched out in a traditional way on paper, and then scanned and manipulated.

After 20 years as an illustrator, he still gets a real kick out of seeing a painting reproduced in a magazine or as a poster. He was asked by the Los Angeles Dodgers to create a series of portraits in the style of vintage advertising billboards for the outfield wall at Dodger Stadium.
It was a real thrill to sit in the stands with his son, Nate, and watch the games that season unfold in front of his portraits of past Dodger heroes.

When a vintage clothing store opened up in the ground floor of the building his studio is in, he was asked to design a neon sign for their storefront. This proved such a success that he has now designed four other neon signs in the neighborhood.

Like many busy illustrators balancing a full schedule he tries to make time to work on a book project in between his other assignments over the past few years. It is a Jazz ABC book, that began as an introduction to the great jazz musicians for children. A is for Armstrong, B is for Basie, C is for Coltrane... By using first, or last names, or in some cases nicknames, he is creating 26 portraits of some of the most important figures in Jazz. He has been working on them in alphabetic order and has just finished Q (Modern Jazz Quartet).

G is for Gerry Mulligan, E is for Duke Ellington, J is for Jelly Roll Morton

Paul's love of jazz has lead to a number of jazz related projects, which in his estimation, is one of the best things about being an illustrator. Getting the chance to work on something of which you have a deep understanding, which ensures that the artist finds himself creating new and more creative work, and being stretched into areas that are very fertile and exciting. He has completed portraits and covers for the Playboy Jazz Festival at the Hollywood Bowl every year since 1986, and in addition has just done the poster for the 20th Syracuse Jazz Festival. This year he was honored to be invited to create a portrait of Wynton Marsalis to be published as a limited edition, 18 color silk-screen poster for The New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. This project has led to his first gallery show at Stella Jones Gallery in New Orleans. He will be showing the original painting for the poster as well as preliminary drawings and color studies.

Paul is married to Jill von Hartmann, a graphic designer and their studios are across the hall from each other, and they work together on projects that require a collaboration of their talents. Paul maintains that she's the one with the good ideas. A modest artist, who is nevertheless the consummate professional.