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Downtown Bangs Avenue was abuzz with the sights of over 200 professional and amateur artisans who tested out the latest in fine art supplies from industry leaders Winsor & Newton, Liquitex and Conté à Paris at the Collective Art Tank’s Third Annual Day of Demos held Saturday.

The yearly event brings the 19 North American artists of the Fine Art Collective, who teach seminars and in college classrooms the rest of the year, to Asbury Park’s Collective Art Tank where they give demonstrations and offer tips and techniques on how to get the most out fine art products like watercolor sticks and watercolor markers, gel paints with various solid materials in them for texture, spray paints and other materials from Winsor & Newton, Liquitex and Conté à Paris. The companies sponsor both collectives.

Michele Terreri, 30, Neptune, created a textured gel painting. Prior to the event, she had worked with all types of acrylic paints but never anything textured, she said.

“It can’t get any better than this, you get to sample everything possible, it leads to new and different things I’ve never seen before,” she said.

Michele Theberge, 49, Oakland, Calif., one of the 19 artists of the Fine Art Collective, teaches seminars at colleges and universities in Northern California and Arizona. She and her 18 colleagues offered guidance and support to new artists entering the fine art field. For experienced artists, they gave more in-depth, technical knowledge.

“If someone is just coming and they are intimidated by art, I want them to feel like anyone can do this — just sit down, try something out. We will walk you through it and support you and it’s fun. It’s great to be creative and you don’t have to be an experienced artist,” she said.

Opportunities for hands-on product testing also eases artists’ trepidation to purchase new products and lessens the potential for wasting money on materials that don’t suit their fancy, since they can’t open up paints and products and test them in stores, Theberge said.

The Collective Art Tank is the brainchild of professional artist John Viggiano brought to fruition with the help of his former Monmouth University professor, Jimmy Leslie. Leslie is a resident artist at Liquitex and director of The Fine Art Collective.

Prior to the Day of Demos, the 19 artists that make up the Fine Art Collective, gather for a day of training with Leslie.

It only makes sense to bring the Fine Art Collective back to the Art Tank for an annual meeting and public product demonstration because of the support the sponsors already give to both collectives, said Viggiano.

“Why hide it in a convention center or a hotel?Why not bring it out to the public?” Viggiano said.

It’s also a huge benefit for the local artists’ community and allows Leslie the opportunity to see how his 19 artists interact with the public one-on-one, Viggiano said.

“It’s a good thing for the people in town to see these products and to have the opportunity to meet 19 professional artists,” said Viggiano.

The Day of Demos has evolved considerably since its 2012 inception. The first iteration brought 30 or so individuals into the Art Tank’s former location within the Shoppes at the Arcade, where professional artists swapped out time and materials on one table at the front of the room, giving demonstrations similar to classroom instruction, Leslie said. Organizers held the event out on the sidewalk in front of the Shoppes for the second year, opening up the space to allow more participants to play with materials in a open outdoor environment. Under several tents set up on downtown Bangs Avenue, artists had even more space to have fun and test out products this year.

The day extends the educational element the Collective Art Tank offers year-round out into the streets. Artists are able to rent out the space free of charge to teach classes, share knowledge, have access to studio space and expand the artistic opportunities for the local art community. The space is fully sponsored by Winsor & Newton, Liquitex and Conté à Paris, but, beyond that, is a labor of love for Viggiano and Leslie.

“It’s about being two artists who want to see other artists coming together, which is hard to do,” said Leslie.

Also spotlighted at the Day of Demos was the Sketchbook Project, a Brooklyn-based, crowd-sourced library of more than 30,000 artists’ sketchbooks. Participants were invited to leaf through a sampling of sketchbooks provided at the mobile exhibition. Representatives from the library also sold empty sketchbooks and fielded inquiries about the project and how to get involved.

For more information about The Collective Art Tank, located at 529 Bangs Ave., visit www.CollectiveArtTank.com.

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