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1989

Designing the packaging for “Flowers In The Dirt”

Last updated on November 5, 2025


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From Work | Brian Clarke: architectural artist, stained glass artist and painter:

Album cover and paintings designed and made by Brian Clarke for Paul McCartney’s 1989 album, Flowers in the Dirt. Brian’s concept paired his paintings and compositions of cut flowers with Linda McCartney’s photography, producing a collaborative series of canvases and pictures. The photographs were shown at Linda’s Flowers in the Dirt exhibition at the Mayor Gallery, London, in 1989. Brian also designed the stage sets for the tour that accompanied the album, The Paul McCartney World Tour.

“I got the idea for the Flowers in the Dirt cover when I was staying at the Oriental Hotel in Bangkok. I did a sketch and a faxed it back to Paul. He said he was interested and wanted to see it developed. By then I was in New Delhi and I did the painting there. I flew back with it one Thursday night and Linda and I went into the studio the following day, laid the flowers on the canvas – which was still wet – and worked on it until we got it right.” – Brian in the programme for The Paul McCartney World Tour.


From Paul McCartney | “Flowers in the Dirt” Concept Artwork – Concept artwork for the cover of the 1989 Paul McCartney album Flowers in the Dirt. Designed by Mike Ross, the artwork comprises various transparency overlays of flowers and an image of Paul’s face on the right side. The album’s title is hand lettered on the top layer of transparency. This particular design did not make the final cut, with Paul opting for a design by Brian Clarke.

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Billy • Nov 01, 2025 • 1 month ago

Hi, I've found a rejected/concept cover for Flowers In The Dirt designed by Mike Ross up for auction on juliensauctions and I couldn't find anything about it on here so I thought I'd reach out just in case it's new information the link to the lot is below

thanks for reading

https://www.juliensauctions.com/en/items/2090703/paul-mccartney-flowers-in-the-dirt-concept-artwork


The PaulMcCartney Project • Nov 05, 2025 • 4 weeks ago

Hi Billy,

Thanks a lot for finding this. This is new to me, and I will enrich the page accordingly.

Thanks again!


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