Roger Dean Album Art

Roger Dean (born August 31, 1944, is an English artist, designer, architect and publisher. He is best known for his work on album covers for musicians which he began painting in the late 1960s. The covers usually feature exotic, fantastic landscapes.

His first album cover work was in 1968 for a group called Gun. In 1971, Dean produced the cover for the first album by the African/Caribbean band Osibisa which attracted widespread attention to his work. Later that year, he began the partnership with the progressive rock band Yes for which he is best known. His first design for the band was for their album Fragile. Dean designed the now-classic Yes "bubble" logo, which first appeared on the album Close to the Edge, and continued to create covers for the band until as recently as 1999 (The Ladder). Yes guitarist Steve Howe said, "There is a pretty tight bond between our sound and Roger's art." In addition to their album covers, Dean also contributed to his brother Martyn Dean's stage set designs for the band.

Known primarily for the dreamy, other-worldly scenes he has created for Yes, Budgie, Uriah Heep, Gentle Giant and other bands, Dean has said, "I don't really think of myself as a fantasy artist but as a landscape painter." Characteristic landscapes show graceful stone arches (as shown in Arches Mist, above) or floating islands, while many paintings show organic appearing habitats (such as shown in the cover for Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe). Though he primarily works with watercolour paints, many of his paintings make use of multiple media, including gouache, ink, enamel, crayon and collage. In addition to his cover paintings, Dean is respected for his calligraphic work, designing logos and titles to go with his paintings.

www.rogerdean.com

Animated Art Work