Lincoln Arts Festival’s 30th Art For Art’s Sake event held Aug. 22-24 brought a unique exhibition of local and regional artists and artisans to the region. Held at the Hodgdon Yachts yard on Southport Island, 25 creatives set up their spaces, some of whom held demos for attendees on Saturday, Art Interaction Day.

There were five new talented people this year: Jewelry designer and maker Janet Brennan; Brittney Honisch, a handcarving print maker; photographer Jim LaMorder; artist Cecelia Ludwig; and Betsey Nessmith, who creates mirror-stove assemblages.

Brittney Honisch of Boothbay Harbor uses linoleum to make relief carvings. She prefers linoleum to softer materials. Linoleum lets her create designs with the finer detail she requires. Using equally fine tools, her work focuses on wildlife – of the earth, sea and air. One such piece, “Swallow Song,” depicts three swallows in flight with white wisps of wind created by their wings against an orange background. She frames the top and bottom of the image with a shaft of wheat grass; the orange and wheat suggesting a time of year.

Annette Stormont of East Boothbay has been working in pottery for over 40 years. Over the last four, she has been focused on a kinetic design involving moving, textured pieces attached to threaded steel on a base. Each textured piece bears a different design or pattern using stamp tools, which are then covered with a metallic glaze. Most of the pieces up until very recently bear a bronze/black appearance. Her most recent is a light marine blue, taller than the rest at about two feet.

“I just love this one,” Stormont said of the blue nautical and sea-themed piece. “I have read thousands of textbooks and I have never seen what I am doing now. Accomplished ceramicists who have seen my work say they have never seen it before. I guess you could say I’ve found my signature design.”

Returning for another year were Liz Ambrosino, Christine Thalia Andersen, Alan Bellows, Wendy Bellows, Andre Benoit, Martha Cowdery and Mike Tomko, Jim Farnan, Helen Fellows, Clark Griffith, Don Josephson, Jeanne Lally, Nora Lally, Mary Nelson, Suzanne “Sanny” Norton, Rimar Reed, Fran Scannell, John M.T. Seitzer, Ursula Smith, Annette Stormont and Betsy Wing.

“Although I don't have any of the final numbers for the show, early tallies showed us ahead of both and 2023.  Sunday was unusually good for sales,” said organizer Wendy Bellows. “The artists all had a great time, and I heard nothing but nice comments from the steady stream of attendees.”