Last weekend marked the return of the Lincoln Arts Festival Art For Art’s Sake Show and Sale to Hodgdon Yacht Services for the first time since 2019, a.k.a. “B.C.” – Before COVID.

The excitement began Friday, Aug. 26 with a pre-show reception attended by most of the artists, fans and friends, around 100 people in the boat shed that evening. Leslie Muir-Volpe, an organizer of the popular event, said the rain added to the natural magic surrounding the boat yard, at the head of Ebenecook Harbor.

That excitement carried over into Saturday – and all day. Muir-Volpe recalled, “People were just streaming in and that’s unusual; usually we have the steady business all day, but yesterday from 10 a.m. to late in the afternoon it was very busy … At one point I wondered if a tour bus had pulled up!”

Sunday, traditionally the quieter day, maintained that tradition. But, overall, what a show. The artists and artisans drawing hundreds of people back to the boat yard were Christine Thalia Andersen, Elise Andersen/Andersen Studio, Gerda Andersen, David Dupree, Hilary Bartlett, Andre Benoit, Jill Butke, John Butke, Martha Cowdery and Michael Tomko/At Roads End; Rick Dickinson, Lois Glaser, Clark Griffith, Don Josephson, Jeanne Lally, Nora Lally, Leslie Muir-Volpe, Suzanne Norton, Charlie Nowell, Rimar Reed, Fran Scannell, Lynne Seitzer and John M. T. Seitzer/Joy to the Wind Gallery, Ursula Smith, Ramone Hanley-Warren, Carol Wiley and Betsy Wing.

The Andersen sisters’ space also exhibited some of Gerda’s late husband David Dupree’s paintings with the ceramics, paintings, notecards, tile and mixed media art. The artistic talent in that family is mind-blowing. Benoit had a fabulous selection of his assemblage art – talk about a distinction – there were birds, a really cool porcupine (you wouldn’t want to fall into that one); a tree, men, women ... every one of his pieces have an interesting tale to tell ... well, they’d have to, they are all so unusual!

Artist Fran Scannell has been painting for 10 years and loves being part of Art For Art’s Sake. She shared the story behind her painting, “George’s Hollyhocks.” “George is George Cochrane. He gave them to us and they grew to be 6-7 feet tall! We had them for years, but now there’s just a few of them left. I painted this from a photograph – they were so beautiful.” And she’s right.

Don Josephson said when he was deciding what to bring for the show, he waffled over one large painting a woman had once been interested in. “I thought, yeah, I’ll bring it … I never expected her to walk in to the show. And, she bought it! You just never know,” he said.

John Seitzer of Joy to the Wind Gallery had some interesting mixed media collage pieces in his new series, “Games People Play.” This gallery is regularly on the First Friday circuit and hopefully those that remain from the show will be exhibited then. Seitzer used Trivial Pursuit cards as the springboard in this series depicting events, places, people and things that relate to the questions within each piece. Really fascinating stuff. You couldn’t miss this work: Not only was it up against a back wall in the boat shed, but the primary color is red, which, among other things is synonymous with passion, action and intensity. Very interesting indeed.

“Everybody had a good show and the ambiance of being in a boat yard just makes you just go ‘wow’ … It’s just happiness,” said Muir-Volpe with a sunny smile.