FESTIVAL

quality arts and crafts,” she said. “People come here every year in anticipation of this.”

Baker-Smith said this is the biggest show she does each year, and she’s been doing it since 2003 — though she did miss a year in there.

Her pastel work depicts a combination of nature — particularly flora — and pets. She had a bright, colorful floral piece on display alongside depictions of people’s beloved cats and dogs.

Art is a full-time job for her, she said. Her work is for sale online on her Etsy shop, and she does her own prints as well.

“I’m a one-man show basically,” she said.

She also does commis- sioned work of people’s pets, she said, and has earned repeat customers.

Lona Mullins and Holly Wertens said they came to the festival in part to see Baker-Smith.

Wertens greeted Baker-Smith with an enthusiastic hug, and there was plenty of commotion.

They know each other pretty well at this point, which isn’t unreasonable — Baker-Smith has done eight commissions of their cats.

“We have 10, she’s painted all except the two brand-new ones,” Mullins said.

The festival draws visual artists like Baker-Smith, as well as woodworkers, repurposers, weavers of garments and baskets, photographers and so on, but one might overlook the craft that goes into some of the food and drink for sale.

Connie Keck, from Odes-

sa, Mo., had a trailer set up to sell her homemade root beer. She’s been selling at the Bella Vista festival for 17 years.

The recipe, she said, hasn’t changed since she and her husband started the business 23 years ago.

At this point, she said, her business has grown to include four trailers, and they sell their root beer at roughly 40 to 50 festivals and fairs each year. The Bella Vista Arts and Crafts festival, she said, is the last of them she’s working this year.

Events, she said, are the only place they sell their sweet beverage — which is to say it has never been bottled for mass-market sales, and that’s not something Keck intends to do.

“We sell it fresh and cold on-site,” she said. “We meet a lot of nice people, we make friends, it’s a lot of fun.”

Keith Bryant/The Weekly Vista Lona Mullins, left, and Holly Wertens look at some of Julene Baker-Smith’s work on display during the Bella Vista Arts and Crafts Festival. Wertens and Mullins are big fans of her work, they said, and have commissioned portraits of eight different cats from her.

Keith Bryant/ The Weekly Vista A wood inlay piece up for sale in Clive Wright’s tent at the Bella Vista Arts and Crafts Festival. Wright said he drove more than 20 hours from New York to attend the festival.

Keith Bryant/The Weekly Vista Julene Baker-Smith’s feline pet portrait prints on display during the Bella Vista Arts and Crafts Festival. Baker-Smith said she’s been an exhibitor at the festival since around 2003.

Keith Bryant/The Weekly Vista Solange Kelley, an artist from Florida, works on another pine needle basket shortly after receiving a merit award at the Bella Vista Arts and Crafts Festival.

Keith Bryant/The Weekly Vista Connie Keck sells homemade root beer at the Bella Vista Arts and Crafts Festival. The recipe, she said, hasn’t changed since she and her husband developed it more than two decades ago.

Keith Bryant/The Weekly Vista Some small sculptures adorned with Solange Kelley’s pointillism art. It’s based heavily on the style of Aboriginal artists in Australia, she said, and the resting cat sculpture features numerous additional cats hiding in the dots.

Keith Bryant/The Weekly Vista A shuttle tractor, driven by Jennifer Smitten who volunteered with the Bentonville Kiwanis Club, pulls a trailer full of attendees to this year’s Bella Vista Arts and Crafts Festival early Thursday morning.