There were pastels and watercolors, oils and acrylics. The depicted flowers and landscapes, still life scenes and century-old New Jersey scenes.

All combined they made a colorful Saturday afternoon in downtown Caldwell that, if not quite resembling the Metropolitan Museum of Art, at least made for a picture-perfect, downtown open-air art festival.

"It's a beautiful day, nothing has blown over, I met a lot of nice people, made a lot of good connections and I made a few sales, so I'm happy," said Stefanie Silverman, 45, an artist from Montclair who displayed multimedia paintings and pastel cards.

More than two dozen artists, each with a booth displaying wares, spanned the heart of downtown Caldwell for the revival of the Art on the Avenue event. 

Scores of people, like Steve Nelson, 54, a CFO from Roseland, strolled down Bloomfield Avenue for the event, which was coordinated by the Caldwell Merchants Association.

"It's quite interesting and very enjoyable," he said, adding that he made the trip to specifically for the art fair.

Among the collections of artwork, a few vendors stood out.

John Erianne, 26, who lives in Essex Fells and works at Calandra's Italian Village, won a red ribbon for best artwork. His art was a collection of industrial-looking sculptures made from welded, twisted steel as well as bronze sculptures.

He said he welded and twisted the metal himself and collected many of the materials, such as rebar, which is used in construction.

He also said he knew he had something special and unique to offer.

"I know it's different and I think it's awesome," he said. "I know when you walk down the street it's paintings and landscapes and then they come here and it's different."

For others at the event, the prize was simply being able to show off original artwork. Dana Majana, 18, a student at the Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers, said she was glad to display her art, mostly paintings with warm, full colors.

"I'm just happy that people come and look and I get to share it with everyone," she said. "And that I'm not just painting in my basement."

Barry Shiff, 63, of Fort Lee, took the fair as an opportunity in itself to paint. As crowds milled by his booth, which displayed scenes of different New Jersey towns from around the turn of the 20th century, he sat in a chair painting a picture of a frigate ship.

"It's keeping me from being bored to tears when no one's around and it gives me something  to do until there's some action happening," he said.

There was plenty of  action to please downtown businesses. Martha Koestler, who owns the Frame Shop, said that the increased traffic translated into sales boosts. She said she remembers Caldwell doing a similar art fair a quarter-century ago, and looks forward to this new version being a similar success.

"I think it's going to be great," she said. "But it's going to take a while to build it back to what it was."

For many, though, the event was already great. Michael Sarapuchiello, 71, who drove to North Jersey from his home in Whiting near Tom's River, sold more paintings, of New York scenes like Wall Street and Central Park, than he anticipated.

"I thought that I would be wasting my time," he said. "But it turned out to be a very successful day."