SOUTH PORTLAND — A large crowd turned out Saturday for the 36th annual Art in the Park Show and Sale in Mill Creek Park, drawn by perfect summer weather and the works of about 175 artists from throughout New England.

The artists were mostly painters, and they had a variety of styles. There were seascape artists who work in acrylics, still-life watercolor painters, and oil painters using large canvases. But there were also printmakers, sculptors, photographers and artists who work in stained glass and fiber materials.

Allen Davis of Scarborough looks over artwork during Art in the Park at Mill Creek Park.

Ginny Nickerson, back right, and Margette Leanna talk in Leanna’s tent during Art in the Park at Mill Creek Park in South Portland on Saturday. Photos by Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Staff Photographer

The crowd, a mix of old and young people, some pushing strollers or walking dogs, moved slowly among the artists’ displays, which were set up in rings around the park’s central pond. The free show, one of the biggest in the region, included a jazz trio that played on stage intermittently, a food court and children’s activities. Many people stopped and chatted under clear skies with temperatures in the 70s.

Many of the artists traveled an hour or more to sell their work, many setting out before dawn to arrive in the park early to set up their displays and arrange their work on tables and racks.

A watercolor painter, Richard Butterfield of Jefferson, has been coming to Art in the Park for the past 10 to 15 years to sell his paintings, accompanied by his wife, Jane.

“It’s a wonderful setting. It’s a beautiful environment and the weather is always cooperative,” Butterfield said.

Butterfield has been painting for 25 years, producing between 35 and 40 paintings per year. He sells only original paintings, no reproductions.

“Flowers, landscapes and some winter scenes, but after last winter people aren’t interested in that,” Richard Butterfield joked.

Butterfield said he is always able to sell his work at the South Portland sale and at the upcoming art festival on Congress Street in Portland, and makes a point of returning each year. Sometimes he sells new paintings to past buyers he recognizes from prior years.

“I’m really glad to see people appreciate it,” said Jane Butterfield, who described herself as critic and appraiser of her husband’s work. “We do everything as a team.”

Other artists, like seascape painter Linda Cronin of Ipswich, Massachusetts, attended the South Portland sale for the first time ever this year.

“I’ve been doing shows for a long, long time, and I heard about this show. I finally decided to book it this year,” Cronin said.

Cronin uses acrylic paint on canvas and wood to depict oceanfront houses, sailboats and other coastal scenes. She describes her work as folk art, each painting with a similar character and theme.

“I started by doing just a few shows per year, maybe two to three. It’s taken me a long time to get up to this point,” Cronin said.

Photographer Evan Rodriguez of Newburyport, Massachusetts, said he sold his work at the Art in the Park sale last year and decided he wanted to come back again this year.

“This is a really good show. A lot of people rave about it,” Rodriguez said.

Rodriguez mostly photographs architecture from the Boston area and the seacoast northward, as well as nature scenes.

His educational background is in architecture, but he has pursued photography on the side since 2005. He views it as a fun hobby, and mostly spends what he makes from his photo sales on new equipment and related expenses.

“It’s fun. I end up breaking even most of the time. It allows me to afford my hobby,” Rodriguez said.

Many people in the crowd carried multiple purchases as others carried single items to their cars. Others, like Lynn Nagy of Gorham and her mother, Jean Chilinski, of South Portland just came out to enjoy the day.

“We just look,” Chilinski said. “I like the landscapes.”

Nagy and Chilinski sat in the shade by late morning after circling the park and struck up a conversation with Gil Moreno of Falmouth, who said he likes wood and metal sculptures in particular.

“The reason I’m here is I support everything in South Portland. It’s the up-and-coming place,” Moreno said.

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