WARREN – Artists featured their paintings, vendors sold beer and refreshments, performers entertained crowds and people played Pokemon Go at the Warren Art Hop Saturday at Courthouse Square.

“The art scene in Warren is growing, and many artists that have been around in Warren are just now seeing that their city is taking art a little more seriously in the area, and that helps with art and culture. It entices businesses because they want to be involved,” said Adam Gregory, director of the Fine Arts Council of Trumbull County.

The event, which started at 3 p.m., was organized by the Fine Arts Council. Some people browsed the various arts, crafts, jewelry and clothes being sold, and others sat at picnic tables and enjoyed live music. Artists, musicians and street performers provided entertainment, and a trolley was available to take people to a few different galleries and studios in the area.

The open jam session at the gazebo was open to any musician, dancer, or artist who wanted to express themselves in front of the audience.

Julie Hightree of Warren said the music being played was great – and not just because her son was the guitarist of the band that was playing, Blue Steel. The band usually plays at the Lime Tree on open-mic nights.

“The Fine Arts Council is co-sponsoring an open-mic night at Lime Tree, and we let them come out and set up a jam session at the gazebo. They are young artists who haven’t gotten the exposure of paid gigs. It’s a way to let them showcase their talents in front of a crowd,” said Gregory.

Amy Callahan of Orwell said she brought her family to the Art Hop to show them the arts and crafts created by local artists.

“We home-school them, so we brought them here today so they can be more exposed to arts,” she said.

Elizabeth Light of Niles found out about the event when someone gave her a flier when she was playing the smartphone game Pokemon Go at the courthouse. She and her friends sat and listened to the live music while playing the popular game.

“It’s fun, you hang out with friends, listen to some music, look at cool art, local businesses get supported, it’s pretty cool,” she said. “I love art. It’s awesome, in my opinion. People are doing what they love and sharing it with the world.”

Artists not only showcased their art but got a sense of what it would be like to have a business selling their art, as they sold their creations at their tents.

Jonathon Ruple, 24, of West Farmington and Miranda Helmick, 21, of Fowler were two young artists at the Art Hop.

Ruple’s tent featured his paintings and drawings of animals and famous characters like Snape from “Harry Potter.” He also makes illustrations of original characters and monster designs.

“I mostly love doing watercolors, but I do just about everything,” he said.

He started making art at a young age. Doodling on school notebooks is what got him started, and as he practiced it more and more, it became a hobby that he would stick with long after school ended.

Helmick specializes in acrylic paintings. At her tent, there were canvases almost as tall as her, featuring exotic animals in bright, vibrant colors, and smaller paintings on the table.

Painting is a labor of love: It takes her about five to six hours for each large canvas and two for the smaller ones. It was her first time at the Warren Art Hop.

She said she is partial to having exotic animals as a subject because she is a veterinary technician assistant at Countryside in Champion, so she loves animals.

Painting is relaxing for her, and she has been doing it for years.

In second grade, she had one of her pictures featured at the Butler Institute of American Art.

Gregory said having young artists participate helps them get over the fear of showing their work and the money they pay to set up at the Art Hop helps fund the event.

Like Light, Audie Broadus of Warren comes to the courthouse frequently to play the Pokemon Go game.

He said having the event happen was like a bonus because he hangs out there to play, anyway.

Hightree mentioned she saw many Pokemon Go players, and Broadus said he thinks that the game has a positive effect on local businesses and makes people come to community events like Art Hop to play.

“It’s useful for people who are having events because people already come to play the game. It increases sales for the businesses. The local businesses around here have tripled their sales because they are Pokestops,” he said.

sphillips@tribtoday.com