One drives past the Saltwater Artists Gallery on Bristol Road in New Harbor on the way to and from the Pemaquid Point Lighthouse. Those making a beeline for the lighthouse may miss stopping at this delightful multi-room gallery, but they should make every effort to return another day to leisurely view all that the gallery has to offer.

“It all came about because I had my girlfriends come up and they stayed in the apartment. They thought it would be so perfect for a writers retreat,” said Amy Kefauver in a recent interview at the Barn Loft Apartment, which is attached to the Damariscotta home she shares with her husband, artist Will Kefauver. Amy Kefauver was referring to the two upcoming writers workshops she will host at the spacious, recently renovated three-bedroom apartment in October and November.

Marnie Sinclair has five grandchildren. They are the Damariscotta artist’s prime motivation for the environmentally focused work she has been creating since 2010. One such piece – a 3-D mixed-media construction titled “Acidification” – draws attention to the fact that an increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide is decimating the world’s coral reefs. Another piece, “Earth Nest,” features a photograph of her 6-year-old granddaughter Winnie as a baby, cradled in a nest constructed of wire and driftwood. The piece’s description card on the wall in her Bristol Road studio-gallery refers to “yet another oil spill … soiling our nest.”

2016 marks the 56th year that the Pemaquid Group of Artists has shown its artwork at Pemaquid Art Gallery in New Harbor. This year, this venerable group of artists showing at the gallery numbers 30. They are as follows: Barbara Applegate, Debra Arter, Bruce Babb, Julie Babb, Stephen Busch, Mark B. Chesebro, Trudi B. Curtis, William Curtis, Dianne Smith Dolan, Peggy Farrell, Sarah L. Fisher, Helen Viola Glendinning, Claire Hancock, Kay Sawyer Hannah, Jean Nelson Harris, Kathleen Horst, Hannah Ineson, Will Kefauver, Jan Kilburn, Barbara Klein, Patti Leavitt, Sally Loughridge, Marlene Loznicka, Nancy O’Brien MacKinnon, Judy Nixon, Paul Sherman, Liliana Thelander, Ernest “Tommy” Thompson, Bob Vaughan, and Bev Walker.