Bay Area artists descended upon historic downtown and surrounding areas earlier this month for the annual Paint Pleasanton outdoor art event and competition.

During the sunny weekend of Sept. 9-10, artists created their works live and in person around the city and then displayed their finished products for viewing and judging at the Museum on Main. Gouache artist Heather Martin won the top award in the Pleasanton Art League event, earning Best of Show for her painting "Breakfast at Baci's".

"Paint Pleasanton has been such a great experience," Martin said in a statement released by PAL.

"It was almost overwhelming how many great subjects there were downtown, and it was impressive how much character, charm and history has been maintained over the years," she added. "The cherry on top was the kindness and excitement from all of the passersby and volunteers. Will definitely return!"

Other winners in the competition were PAL president Meghana Mitragotri, Malavika Oak, Nancy Roberts, Nutan Singh and Jessica Copeman. Bay Area artist and instructor John Finger served as the judge.

"Downtown Pleasanton has so much varied architecture, so many beautiful street corners and people out, there's an endless amount of subjects to paint," artist Neil Mitchell said in a statement after the event.

"All the tree cover gives shade to paint in and at any time of day the effect of light through the trees hitting buildings and slanting across streets makes me want to paint everything I see," Mitchell said. "PAL was so enthusiastic about painting and welcoming in general that it just made the weekend that much more enjoyable. I'm excited to paint more of Pleasanton in the future."