Paul Pletka was born in southern California in 1946 but grew up in the Southwest. After high school, he won a scholarship to Arizona State University in Tempe and then transferred to Colorado State University, but feeling disappointed in his college art training, did not paint seriously until the late 1960s.

His works of art have been exhibited in one-man shows in Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, Texas, Illinois, New York, Kansasand Missouri continuously since 1964. Pletka's paintings are in more than 40 private and public art collections including the Albany Museum of Art, Albany, GA; Hallmark Cards, Kansas City, MO; Mel Pfaelzer Collection, University of Northern Illinois, De Kalb; the Norton Gallery & School of Art, West Palm Beach, FL; and the United States Department of Interior, Washington, D.C.

Pletka is known for his images of the American West and Mexico, the historic and contemporary people who inhabit these places, and their landscapes. Of particular interest is the regalia and traditional dress of Indigenous peoples. In an interview for ART-TALK, Pletka said, "When I was a youngster and first enchanted with Indian costume, lore and artifacts, I would sometimes pretend I was an Indian. I soon realized that was not intellectually reasonable. I am not an Indian. I am simply an interpreter."