By Renee Worthing
Staff Writer
From Sanford to Mississippi, Father Paul Plante’s 5-inch-by-5-inch close-up paintings of bird’s eyes are recognized as both a reference to birds as well as abstract art.
He said when he paints, the bird’s eye becomes the focal point of the art. He adds design and color around the eye, creating paintings that are identifiable as a bird’s eye or intriguing as abstract art. He said he tries to use realistic colors in his paintings, but sometimes takes liberty with textures.
In acknowledgment of his pastel oil renderings of birds’ eyes, Plante will speak at the York County Audubon Society’s June 17 annual meeting at Laudholm Estuarine and Trust in Wells at 6 p.m.
“I want to focus on the beauty of nature,” he said. “I want to talk about what nature does to human beings that makes us want to freeze it in time to share with others.”
He said the abstract element of his art makes it fun for “birders” to try to figure out what kind of bird it is.
Plante said his invitation to the Audubon Society’s meeting and the recognition his art has earned came in a roundabout way.
A Mississippi couple, Don and Dena McKee, were vacationing in Maine and saw his art on display at the Farnsworth Museum in Rockland. Dena McKee wanted to buy a piece of art for her husband who is the Mississippi Coast Audubon Society Director. She searched for Plante and purchased a painting of a bird’s eye for her husband as a gift.
The three became friends and the McKees invited Plante to their home in Mississippi.
Other Audubon Society members saw his artwork in the McKee home and recommended his art to galleries in the southern states.
“Someone saw my art in the McKee’s house and said, ‘Hey, that’s a Paul Plante,’” Plante said. “It’s amazing the number of contacts you get through birding.”
“It’s nice that the effort you put in art is something others enjoy,” Plante said.
Born and raised in Sanford, Plante attended Saint Ignatius Elementary School, before attending boarding schools in Canada for high school, college and seminary to become a Catholic priest.
  He said his interest in art and birds drew him back to school. He earned his Bachelor’s of Fine Arts in painting from the Maine College of Art in Portland in 1987.
  He first project was painting a series of fruit, focusing on plums.
  “I don’t know why it was plums,” he said. “I think it was a vehicle for colors and lines.”
  His eye for art soon turned to birds and the now-defunct David Hitchcock Gallery in Portland was the first gallery to display his work. He said Mast Cove Gallery of Art in Kennebunkport also displayed his art and several of his current bird’s eye paintings are on display at Caldbeck Gallery in Rockland. His art is also displayed in the Ohr-O’Keefe Museum of Art in Biloxi, Miss. and he was the first artist to appear in the New York City online gallery Mixed Greens. Mixed Greens now has a physical gallery on 26th Street in New York City where his art is on view, but being featured on the gallery’s Web site broadened his scope of connections, Plante said.
  He said he doesn’t photograph his feathered subjects.
  “I look through books and magazines,” he said.
  However, last winter he had the opportunity to catch a glimpse of a King Eider, an arctic duck that made its way to Two Lights State Park in Cape Elizabeth. He read about the unusual duck’s appearance from a birding Web site. When he arrived at the park, another man spotted the rare bird in his scope and allowed others to take a peek.
  “I hope the person who let me look at that King Eider through the scope will be at the Audubon Society meeting,” he said. “I’d like to thank him.”