UMass graduate Jacob Ginga’s day job involves harvesting oysters, so he decided to incorporate his occupation into his artwork.

“It’s all inspired by my work as an oyster farmer,” said Ginga, whose paintings and other ocean-inspired creations were on display at 218 Elm Street over the weekend.

There, inside a building used to work on boats at the South Wharf Yacht Yard in Padanaram, Ginga and a handful of other young artist’s creations were up on the walls of the boathouse as part of the Art Drive’s “Rising Stars” exhibit, which features high school and college students and younger artists mostly from Dartmouth and Westport.

"I’ve gotten a lot of good feedback,” said Ginga, who also sold a piece of art earlier Sunday.

Now in its eighth year, Art Drive is a juried show capped at 32 artists in Dartmouth and Westport only. Stops on the tour are within a 15-mile radius, including the Rising Stars portion.

There, demonstrations took place throughout the day, and the younger crowd had the opportunity to show their work to a crowd with an eye for finer art as part of the Art Drive.

Westport High student Sydney Botelho said her teacher, Morgan Bozarth, was one of the 32 juried artists on the drive, and she encourages some of her students to take part in the exhibit.

“The majority of us either just got out of high school or are in high school,” she said.

Rachel Medeiros, who graduated from Dartmouth High School this past June, said this was her first time taking part in the Rising Stars exhibit.

“It was a fantastic experience and I'm so happy I did it,” said Medeiros, who will attend Salve Regina in the fall for Early Childhood Education, though she plans on continuing on with her art. “I met some new artists and was able to look at different styles of artwork. Also, being able to talk to others about my artwork and get their opinions and critiques was great and I learned a lot through it.”

“They always invite the high school students to come and show their work, which is a pretty good opportunity,” said Jimmy Viera, a Dartmouth high and UMass grad who’s been part of the Rising Stars exhibit in one way, shape, or form for six years. It was through the Rising Stars program that Viera became one of the 32 featured artists on the tour, which he was for the second time this year.

“It’s sweet. We had a ton of people here between (Saturday and Sunday).”