Swedish artist’s birds focus of show today

ROCKLAND – The Project Puffin Visitor Center will host a presentation by Swedish artist Karl Martens at 5 p.m. Wednesday, July 23.

Today’s show is Martens’ first in the United States and it features 20 paintings of puffins, terns, gulls and other seabirds that nest on Audubon sanctuaries in Maine. Martens paints in a distinctive style, using his Zen training to produce brush-stroke images of the birds.

Because so many of Maine’s seabirds can also be found on Sweden’s coasts, Martens said, “painting Maine’s seabirds was very familiar and something that came naturally.”

Like the works of John James Audubon, the namesake of the Audubon Society, Martens’ artwork bring creative expression to seabirds in a manner beyond the narrow category of bird illustrations.

The Project Puffin Visitor Center is a joint project of the National Audubon Society and Maine Audubon and is located at 311 Main St.