The sixth annual ARTinME exhibition at the Boothbay Region Art Foundation represents a diverse collection of art by 87 Maine artists. The 130 works on view offer an outstanding variety of mediums — watercolors, pastels, encaustics, acrylics, oils, marble, wood, seaweed, hand color etching, gouache, tapestry, bronze, marble, brass, inks monotype, assemblage and mixed media.

Juror Kerstin Engman, assistant professor of art at UMaine Orono, had 180 submitted art works to consider. She found eliminating any of the work from this show, which she described as “a strong body of work,” very difficult.

“It gets painful in a way; because you hate to see work of substance eliminated,” Engman said. “I used as many pieces as the space would allow.”

Engman awarded frst place to Lou Landry's confetti wooden bowl.

“I was drawn to his bowl immediately,” Engman said. “It's remarkable from start to finish — the pattern, rhythm, movement and design — and the turn of the stem at the base was so beautifully balanced. You don't just wake up on day and decide to make a bowl that exquisite.”

Landry said he was surprised to win first place.

“I was hoping for something, but I never expected this,” Landry said.

The East Boothbay artist has been woodworking for 55 years, but bought his first lathe just 10 years ago.

“The colors are all natural colors of wood, except for the five colors of dyed birch. The pattern is part trickery, part surprise,” Landry said.

The bowl of 16 layers at 3/16 of an inch in thickness is assembled on a lathe with Landry rotating each layer. Exactly how the pattern will turn out is impossible to know until all of the layers have been added.

“That's the surprise part,” Landry said.

Second place went to Westport Islander Sarah Rhinelander's pastel drawing, “Riding Out the Storm”; and Jackie Melissas' (Brunswick) seaweed smoke fired ceramic, “Keeper of Secrets,” took third place.

Three artists received honorable mention: an encaustic by Jane Page-Conway (Bowdoinham) entitled, “Migrating Flight II,” Trevett artist Jennifer Litchfield for her oil entitled, “Water's Edge I,” and Jerri Whitman's (Dresden) pastel, “Going Home.”

In addition to Jackie Melissas’ sculpture, seven others are included in the show. Those include sculptures by Dick Alden (East Boothbay) in marble, Cynthia Smith in wood and bronze, Barbara Eldred's (East Boothbay) in high fiber stoneware and Donna Denniston's (Boothbay Harbor) of epoxy clay.

Show goers will see an intriguing works of an historical nature. There is an assemblage of antique bobbins and spindles, entitled, “Skyline of A Vanished World,” by David Boyle of Bath, which brings the Industrial Revolution to mind.

Petrea Noyes' “Beach Boat,” is a mixed medium piece, which possesses an almost ghostly quality — a phantom sailboat and four human figures dressed in black that appear slightly blurred.

Of the 87 artists in the show, 20 are from the Boothbay peninsula. In addition to Dick Alden, Carlton Plummer, John Butke, Joan Plummer, Cilla Alden, Christine Andersen, Cheryl Blaydon, Thomas Block, Nathan Campbell, June Elderkin, Sue Heil Kibbe, Michael Lewis, Merlin Smith, Tony van Hasselt, Ellen Hutcheson and Mark Mellor.

Votes for the People's Choice Award is ongoing through Nov. 8. Stop by the desk at the gallery and write in your favorite.

The Boothbay Region Art Foundation is located at 1 Townsend Avenue in Boothbay Harbor. For more information, call 207-633-2703 or visit www.boothbayartists.org.