The inaugural Onset Street Painting Festival was a "chalk full of fun" for the hundreds of people who came out to draw, watch, dance and enjoy a beautiful day.

"It was beyond our imagination," said event coordinator Milly Burrows. "There are lots of families, beautiful weather, it's a great day all around."

Chalk artists from all over Southern New England came to Prospect Park across from the Onset Pier Saturday afternoon to draw on the walkways throughout the park. One of those was the event's featured artist, Stephanie Dolph of Connecticut.

Dolph, who is actually a chemist with Pfizer, was discovered by Burrows at the Providence Street Painting Festival last September.

Dolph said she has been painting at the Providence festival for eight years.

"I've always loved to draw and paint so I just started doing it," she said. "It gives me a chance to use both sides of my brain."

Nancy Zagryn of Providence was working on her art for more than six hours Saturday afternoon. She has made chalk art for the last six years. She said compared to other festivals she's been in where the art is done in a big flat lot, the location of the festival in Onset is beautiful.

"It's also interesting the way they have all the booths set up with vendors," she added.

Dozens of arts and crafts vendors lining the park selling jewelry, paintings, clothes and much more. The vendors came from all over, some as far as Dania Beach, Florida in the case of Marc's Marionettes.

There were also plenty of locals as well, such as David and Susan Paling of Wareham who had a tent selling fish-shaped driftwood, locally collected from Stony Point Dike.

"A lot of people have said to me 'We're going to come back next year and bring the whole family'," Burrows said. "It's been totally satisfying."