Art, music and shopping filled downtown Thursday evening during the 3rd Annual Art on the Town event.
A crowd filled downtown as businesses stayed open until 9 p.m. and El Dorado Main Street organized for artists and musicians to set up in each of the businesses. Refreshments also were offered at many of the stops along the street.
Among the artists with their work on display was Sarah Wright, who is originally from the area and just recently moved back from Texas.
She had several of her acrylic paintings on display and also was doing a demonstration.
“I’m Christian and I take my inspiration from the Bible,” she explained of how she comes up with her ideas for her paintings.
She mainly uses blues, reds and black in her abstract paintings.
She has been painting for a couple of years.
“I’ve always liked to paint, but I just did people before,” she said. “That didn’t give me any inspiration.”
She started reading the Bible and found inspiration for her work.
She last showed her work at Circle Gallery, which is how she found out about the Art on the Town when Jeannie Parscal gave her name to Lindsay Baines, Main Street director, and Baines contacted her to participate.
“It’s (painting) my way to relax,” Wright continued.
Wright was located in Beyond Napa.
Another artist in the event was Ralph Lilley of El Dorado.
“I do etchings and carvings in granite tile,” he explained to people as they passed through Sunshine Alley, where he had his work on display.
He had a variety of etchings on display, including some in black granite galaxy, which has copper specks throughout it; granite; slate; and marble.
Lilley recently got back into his etchings after taking about a year off.
“I came up with the idea and decided to do it,” he said of how he first got started doing etchings in 2002.
He also took a design class from a former El Dorado Middle School art teacher, although that was mostly working in wood.
This was the first year for Lilley to participate in the Art on the Town, but he had been interested in the past.
“I was just driving around doing my daily work and I stopped in the Depot and talked to Lindsay,” he said. “I’d been wanting to do it.”
She told him there were still spaces available so he signed up.
