Paul Lingenbrink Whitman, painter, printmaker, illustrator, and teacher, was born in Denver, Colorado on April 23, 1897. His family moved to Saint Louis, Missouri and as a young man, he was sent to a preparatory school in the east, which readied him for Yale University. His studies were interrupted by the outbreak of the first world war as he was inducted into the U.S. Army, where he served in the European theatre as a lieutenant. After the war, Whitman studied at the University of Washington in St. Louis and married and began a successful but short career in the insurance field.

In 1926, Whitman moved to his family to Carmel, California. He immediately became involved with the burgeoning artistic community and continued his art studies under his friend and mentor, Armin Hansen. He supported his family by teaching at the Robert Louis Stevenson School in Pebble Beach. Whitman produced a body of watercolors, oils, lithographs, and intaglios and eventually built a home on the famed golf course in Pebble Beach.

Whitman traveled to Guatemala in 1937 and the trip resulted in a number of watercolors and original prints. Prior to this excursion, he collaborated with Armin Hansen on a series of murals for the Hotel Del Monte. These were painted on canvas and are now in the collection of the Monterey Museum of Art. Whitman also explored sculpture and created a pair of bas reliefs for the façade of the New Bank of Carmel building located at the corner of Ocean and Dolores in Carmel.

During the second world war, Whitman served with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in San Francisco between 1942 and 1945. His job was to create effective camouflage for US troops. Post war he returned to painting and completed commissions to illustrated two books by Martin Flavin.

Whitman was a member of and exhibited with the California Society of Etchers and the Carmel Art Association. Besides being a charter member of the Carmel Art Association, he served a term as vice president. His work was included in exhibitions at the Smithsonian Institution (1929), the California State Fair (1947), the California State Library, the Del Monte Hotel Gallery, and Stanford University. In 2002, the Monterey Museum of Art mounted the retrospective Reflections: The Art of Paul Whitman (1897-1959). Whitman is represented in the collections of the Monterey Museum of Art; the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco; and the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

Paul Whitman died suddenly at the age of 53, on December 11, 1950, in Pebble Beach.