By Gretchen Webster

WESTPORT — On Saturday, the first day of the 51st annual Westport Fine Arts Festival, the sun shone on the 140 artists and craftspeople displaying their work, and hundreds who came to view — and buy — the spectrum of artwork.

Many of the artists said they have exhibited at the Westport festival for several decades, but 30 percent of the artists at the show are new this year, according to Sue Brown Gordon, director of the event , sponsored by the Westport Downtown Association.

The festival continues for a second day Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

The Westport exhibition is nationally ranked, Gordon said, and Main Street provides a nice layout for the display tents “with room to breathe. The hospitality here is wonderful,” she added, with a reception held at Christ and Holy Trinity Church for the artists Saturday night.

Some of the participants are from Westport, including Mary Ann Neilson, who has displayed her art at the festival for nearly four decades. A former teacher at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, botanical paintings are one of her specialties. 

Other artists displaying work included Jason Curtis, a glassblower from Easton who signed his work by engraving it at the show for buyers.

Artist Stuart Yankell hails from Stamford. His paintings are an interesting juxtaposition of abstraction and realism.

“I’ve done this show for decades,” Yankell said. “They always have a great audience here. Westport has the artistic lineage and appreciates art.”

Many of the artists at the show had come to Westport from all over the East Coast, including Florida, to show their work.

Two brothers, David and Daniel Oleski from Pennsylvania, were exhibiting their work on opposite sides of the Main Street corridor. David has participated in the Westport event since 2007, but this year was his brother’s first year joining him. 

“Both our parents were artists,” he said. “They never said, ‘we couldn’t.’ ”

He also praised the Westport Fine Arts Festival for having “a really strong audience for art,” and art lovers who appreciate and buy the art, he said.

“They understand there are layers behind what they see … they have great intelligence about what they’re viewing.”

One display that was not welcomed by some festival goers was a woman, costumed in the Palestinian flag and carrying a placard  protesting the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. The young woman, who would not give her name, said only that she was not from Westport and was trying to raise money to evacuate children from the Gaza war zone. She chose the Westport festival for her protest, “because I appreciate art.”

Police Cpl. David Scinto, on patrol at the festival, said the woman had a constitutional First Amendment right to carry out the peaceful protest. He said had not seen any other protesters at the festival on Saturday.

The protester was clearly not appreciated by many at the festival, however, including artist Joseph Grieco, of New York City, who said he thought her actions intruded on the positive mood and purpose of the annual festival.

“People came here to enjoy themselves and to get away from that kind of thing,” he said. “She’s rude.”

Street closures, parking

For the festival’s second day, the following downtown street closures remain in effect:

• Main Street from Post Road to Avery Place, until 9 p.m. Sunday, May 26.

• Elm Street from Main Street up to the Serena & Lily, until 9 p.m. Sunday, May 26.

Parking is available at Parker Harding Plaza, the Baldwin lot, at Jesup Green (the Taylor and upper library lots) and the Imperial Avenue lot.

Freelance writer Gretchen Webster, a Fairfield County journalist for many years, was editor of the Fairfield Minuteman and has taught journalism at New York and Southern Connecticut State universities.