With so many beautiful works of art on display at this year’s “Art in Transit” reception and awards ceremony, it was challenging to take in all 40 of them during the May 20 event at the RAL Art Center in Kilmarnock.

While much of the attention during the reception was focused on the works of the three award winners, two paintings submitted by Judith Kidd, a self-taught artist, and long-time Bay Transit rider, also stood out in the crowd.

Kidd, who was born and raised in Middlesex County, traveled to the “Art in Transit” reception, as she typically does, on a Bay Transit bus. Her paintings were inspired by her late father, a waterman and charter boat captain on the Rappahannock River for over 40 years. One of her paintings, called “Kathy” is of her father’s wooden fishing boat, named after Judy’s mother Katherine. The second painting, titled “Catch Bay Transit,” depicts the “excitement of two fishermen as one of them pulls up his catch” during a charter boat trip aboard the Kathy...