On the Wing Eustis man’s ethereal bird sculptures are flights of fancy

It’s easy to see where bird sculptor Hugh Verrier gets his inspiration. As he sits sipping his morning coffee at his kitchen table, the grandeur of the Bigelow Mountain range and Flagstaff Lake unfold before him.

Within minutes, the birds begin to arrive – a group of 30 or so large Canada geese honking their arrival as they land onto a cove beneath Verrier’s window.

The smaller birds – jays, sparrows, chickadees, on migration to the Arctic Circle – are lured even closer by a village of bird feeders Verrier has placed closer to his rural home in the northeast corner of Franklin County.

“Canada geese, loons, herons, eagles, mallards – in the evening there is a parade here,” the Eustis artist said.

Carefully cut into one of the windows is a porthole for a camera whose pictures – captured at 4,000ths of a second – will be used as inspiration for Verrier’s ethereal paper sculptures. “I can see the wing patterns, the feather movement,” he said.

If you take your coffee and stroll to the other end of the cabinlike home, you feel as if you’ve come full circle: sculpted birds fly all around you. There’s an owl over the door, descending down with its talons exposed. A swan glides gently across one wall and an imposing eagle peers down, as if you were its prey.

The birds are magnificent paper sculptures, constructions made with high-quality, super thick watercolor paper buoyed by a hidden framework hidden behind them that projects them from the wall, giving the appearance of continual flight.

At 73, Verrier believes he has found his true art. “This has become my daily passion,” he said, admitting that he works in his studio every day. “I am always thinking about the process and what I’m going to accomplish.”

Even when he is sleeping, Verrier dreams of his work. “Somewhere in that state between dreaming and sleeping I often solve problems of construction,” he said.

Raised in a very poor, hard-working family in Scarborough, Verrier inherited his talent from his father. “He was a good artist, but he gave it up to support his family in the Depression,” Verrier recalled. Both Verrier’s brother and sister are accomplished artists.

Verrier wandered through several careers before coming back to his art. He was a commercial fisherman, built up a lobster trap supply business, piloted tug boats and dredging vessels, operated a commercial laundry and worked in construction.

Always doing “art on the side, sort of as a hobby,” he began seriously pursuing his calling about 30 years ago. “I realized just how much I loved it. I began carving. I began getting commissions.” He believes his years of working on the ocean trained his senses to interpret color and light.

But it was only in the last few years that Verrier’s interest has turned to creating the bird paper sculptures. Their delicate colors and gentle sloping wings provide the dimensional birds with a lifelike stature.

“I love birds. I love the wings and the feathered patterns. I hope I’m a bird in my next life,” he said. “Haven’t you marveled at the lines and color of the great blue heron over a salt marsh?”

Verrier’s process, which is self-taught (“I can’t find anyone else doing this,” he said.) is simple. He creates a template, cuts the shape out of extra heavy, fine French watercolor paper, wets the paper and shapes it. “When it dries, it takes on a hardness that is actually harder and stronger than the original paper,” he said.

The sculpture is then reinforced to provide even more dimension and keep it inches away from a wall, simulating flight.

Then come the watercolors.

“I just blob it on the paper with no pattern and then sand it off,” Verrier explained. But there is experience and an artist’s eye in the colors selected. As he sands, feathers appear, wings take shape.

He then highlights various sections of the bird. “When I paint, I can add shadows and accents. It begins to take on a real dimension.”

It was his love of watercolor that prompted him to begin cutting out pieces and experimenting with shaping the paper. “The sanding happened purely by accident,” he said.

Today, Verrier is having trouble keeping up with demand for his bird sculptures, which take from two weeks to longer to complete, working full time. His pieces sell for between $400 and $3,000 each. His paintings and sculptures have appeared at the prestigious Maine Coast Artists shows, Memorial Hall Library in Andover, Mass., the Maine Audubon Society gallery and various other galleries. To his surprise, he is selling many of his works to seasonal residents who are building impressive homes in the Sugarloaf area. Even though many of the sculptures are sea birds, “These pieces are very much at home in the tranquil, natural setting of the western mountains,” said Verrier. “And so am I.”

Verrier’s sculptures are on view at his Birds in Flight Gallery four miles north of Stratton on Route 27 in Eustis. To schedule a visit, call 246-6694. His Web site is www.birds-in-flight.com. Sharon Kiley Mack can be reached at 487-3187 and bangordaily@downeast.net.