OLD ORCHARD BEACH — Artists from throughout the state and beyond will be scattered around Ocean Park over the next few days, capturing the beauty of the seaside community on canvas.

The sixth annual Art in the Park, sponsored by the Ocean Park Association, will be held from Sunday though Wednesday. It’s a plein air festival, in which artists paint outdoors. Five residents artists – four from Maine and one from Rhode Island – will be stationed throughout the Ocean Park community, painting whatever catches their eye, whether it be the long stretch of sandy beach, the marsh, the groves of tall pines or the cottages and classic coastal architecture. Artists can also be commissioned to create a specific piece of art.

“You have an artist at your doorstep,” said Ocean Park Association member Frank Gwalthney, and people who have a favorite artist from years past may ask them to do a painting of their summer home as a family keepsake or a thoughtful gift.

The festival aligns with the values of Ocean Park, a Chautauqua community established in 1881 that hosts a busy summer schedule of educational, recreational and spiritual activities.

The whereabouts of the artists will be posted on a sandwich board outside Jakeman Hall on Temple Avenue, and people strolling through the community are invited to stop and watch the artists, say hello and ask questions.

Paintings created over the course of Art in the Park will be sold at a Wet Paint sale from 5 p.m. to 7:30 p.m on Wednesday at The Temple at 50 Temple Ave.

Art in the Park is non-juried, and artists aren’t competing against each other for prizes, which promotes camaraderie among the artists, said Gwalthney. The artists who come back year after year have become friends, and Ocean Park has become, as it has for the many seasonal visitors every year, a relaxing place to be, said Gwalthney.

Artist Ed Buonvecchio, of Manchester, will be participating in the festival for the sixth year in a row.

“The people who organize it are very friendly and accommodating,” he said. Artists from a distance are given temporary housing by host families, which helps keep expenses down and is very much appreciated by the artists, said Buonvecchio.

Buonvecchio describes his painting as “loose and impressionistic.” He said he enjoys plein air painting because he feels less cooped up then when painting in a studio and the outdoors provides a realistic environment.

“This is a great way to see color as it really is, people as they really are and the atmosphere as it affects the composition,” he said.

Buonvecchio said one year at the Arts in the Park festival he made a painting of a house near the beach. The woman who bought the painting at the wet art sale was very emotional and asked to get his picture with her. The house he had painted was a special place to her family, and she had been going there every summer since she was a little girl.

Buonvecchio has also painted views of the train tracks on the edge of Ocean Park, which have proved to be popular. The area, he said, is symbolic, because as people drive over the train tracks, they are beginning their vacation and entering a place to unwind and rest.

— Staff Writer Liz Gotthelf can be reached at 780-9015 or by email at egotthelf@journaltribune.com.