FARMINGTON – Heirlooms of Tomorrow will have Father Paul Plante as Artist of the Month for July. An open house to introduce Plante’s work will be held from 4 to 7 p.m. Friday, June 31, and 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, July 1. The public is invited. Due to Plante’s weekend commitments, he will be present at Friday’s open house only. Refreshments will be served.

Plante was born in Sanford in 1943. He was ordained a Catholic priest on May 8, 1971, and has served in parishes throughout the state. He graduated from the Seminary of Philosophy in Montreal with a BPR and from St. Paul University in Ottawa with a STL.

In 1987 Plante received his BFA in painting from the Maine College of Art in Portland. He has been included in a number of museum shows, including the Farnsworth Museum in Rockland, the Colby College Museum in Waterville and the Biennial at the Portland Museum of Art.

His work is shown at Mixed Greens.Com in New York, the Nielson Gallery in Boston, June Fitzpatrick in Portland, the Firehouse Gallery in Damariscotta, the Caldbeck in Rockland, the Bayview in Brunswick and the Susan Maasch in Bangor.

He is pastor of Our Lady of the Lakes in Oquossoc, also serving Rangeley and Stratton.

Plante’s work has focused on a series of fruit and the eyes of birds, fish and other animals. The works are small, oil pastel on paper. He said, “Being a priest and being an artist are naturals to me. One is into a spiritual and religious realm and the other is on the edge of it.”

Heirlooms of Tomorrow is located at 710 Wilton Road.