This week’s focus on the arts has miles of fine artists showing off what they do best in the region.

Many can be found this weekend in Easton, at the 15^th annual Riverside Festival of the Arts. Sponsored by ACE (Arts Community of Easton), the event will be held on Larry Holmes Drive, along the scenic Lehigh River where it meets the Delaware. This area made national headlines in past weeks with recent flooding from Tropical Storm Lee. Hopefully all will remain dry for the festival set for Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Two of Easton’s artists who look forward to the event each year are Carol Benner and Joey Gourniak. Benner, who is Riverside’s committee secretary, describes her oils as “very traditional” in style. Whether painting still life or landscapes, she feels excitement with each stroke of the brush.

“I pick things that mean something to me,” she said of her subjects that come to life on canvas.

Benner considers herself a “new artist,” adding that she’s “really honored” when someone chooses her work. She minored in art and obtained a teaching degree at Bethany College in West Virginia. Her early years were spent dabbling in acrylics until 2003, when she enrolled in an adult education course in Hunterdon County, where she formerly resided. (She and her husband, Bill, formerly owned Rudl Fencing). That’s when her interest in oils peaked under the tutelage of New Jersey artists James Hankard of Flemington and Trish Vergis of Frenchtown. Benner’s work has since been featured in several New Jersey art shows, including The Frame Carriage in Frenchtown, The Carpedium Art Gallery in Clinton, and the Highlands Art Gallery in Chester. Crossing the Delaware, she’s exhibited in ACE shows and at the State Theatre’s art gallery, and the Tinicum Art Festival. In 2008, her “River View” oil of the Delaware placed her in the top 10 in a juried show at Mayfair Festival of the Arts in Allentown. Currently, Benner's work can be found at Connexions Gallery in Easton and at the Plaza Bistro in Bethlehem.

For Gourniak, this year’s Riverside Festival takes on special meaning since his 16x20 painting titled “Twin Rivers” was selected for auction to benefit the event. The work is currently on display in the window of the Grand Eastonian Suites Hotel in downtown Easton, and bids are being accepted. Gourniak said with the festival serving as a backdrop to the Easton/Twin Rivers area’s culture and arts, it was only fitting to honor the great waterway that is so much a part of daily life.

“I wanted a different view,” he explains, choosing the perspective “from a waterfall up [Route] 611,” Gourniak said.

Gourniak works in mixed medium and incorporates colorful acrylics, spray paint and textures. He describes his style as “sci-fi and fantasy.” A 2001 graduate of Phillipsburg High School, he enrolled in private art lessons. In 2006, he created the mural at the Fun House in Bushkill Park.  In addition to his Church Street studio in downtown Easton, his work can be found at city venues, including Ocean, and Black & Blue restaurants, and Hair 48 and Hair to Dye For salons.

“I want people to be inspired by my art,” Gourniak said, “and to keep their lives moving.”

When he’s not painting, he works at Easton Yoga.

Showcasing regional artists is always taken seriously at the Riverside festival, with a juried show and sale and cash prizes in the categories of Fine Arts and Fine Crafts. Back by popular demand will be a Plein Air Painting Contest with Easton as its theme and sponsored by Shaughnessy Law Offices. New this year: Upper Milford artist Dr. Barnaby Ruhe, New York University art professor, will conduct a Figure-Painting Clinic. Ruhe is famously known for his eccentric happenings, or marathon portrait-painting sessions. He’s also garnered international attention as world boomerang champion.

Easton’s noted playwright Bill Marley has organized “Author, Author!” with the Greater Lehigh Valley Writers Group. Authors and poets will read both Saturday and Sunday afternoons, with open slots for the public to join in. And what’s a festival without live music? The lineup includes the James Supra Band, Maria Woodford and Jake Heck, Manhattan’s Party Folk, Doug Hawk Prop 3, Helen Martin, Michael Grey and Ashley Godshall. Premier sponsor of this year’s festival is Phillipsburg Mall; other sponsors include Crayola, Brown-Daub, and the City of Easton. For further info: eastonriversidefest.com

A footnote here: The ACE Fall Juried Group Show begins Saturday and runs through Nov. 27 at the State Theatre’s Brown-Daub Gallery. Opening reception is Oct. 7 from 6 to 8 p.m. More to come … For further info: eastonart.org

Arts roundup:

The Baum School of Art in Allentown has two current exhibitions. The first features artists of the Lehigh Valley area, 1926-1975, in the David E. Rodale Gallery, while the second, “In Focus: A Photographic Heritage,” features photographs that span the school’s 85-year visual history and its former locations in the city. For further info: baumschool.org

There’ll be lots of laughter across the Delaware with Neil Simon’s comedy hit, “The Odd Couple,” running through Oct. 21 at Hunterdon Hills Playhouse dinner-theater in Perryville, N.J. It’s always fun to see how those divorced and mismatched roommates, Felix Unger and Oscar Madison, deal with domestic situations. For further info: hhplayhouse.com.

The Lehigh Valley also boasts a dinner theater at the Pines on the Fairgrounds complex in Allentown, with “Always…Patsy Cline,” through Oct. 23. While it pays tribute to a country legend, it’s based on a true story about Cline’s friendship with a fan from Houston. Cline was killed in a plane crash in 1963, at the age of 30. For further info: pinesdinnertheatre.com

Many of us can pretty much rattle off the names of Hollywood celebrities in the news, but how about the directors behind those faces?

Reading native Andrew Orth has an eye for showing the faces behind the films with his photographic exhibit, “Directing Hollywood,” opening Friday and running through Jan. 22, 2012, at the Reading Public Museum. Orth, now residing in New York City, has selected 24 portraits from his collection of prominent Hollywood directors, including Steven Zaillian (“Girl With the Dragon Tattoo,” “Schindler’s List”), Darren Aronofsky (“Black Swan,” “The Wrestler”) and Mike Figgis (“Leaving Las Vegas,” “Mr. Jones,” “Cold Creek Manor’).

Because Orth photographed many of the heavy-hitters before they made a name for themselves, he has included up-and-coming Philadelphia filmmaker Jenny Deller in his exhibit. Deller’s first feature film, “Future Weather,” starring Amy Madigan, Lili Taylor, Bill Sadler, Marin Ireland and newcomer Perla Haney-Jardine, is set for a 2012 festival release. It received the 2009 Showtime Tony Cox Award for Best Screenplay from the Nantucket Film Festival. Film Independent named Deller as one of the top 10 filmmakers to watch in 2011.

Orth concentrated on theater as a student at the Perkiomen School and studied radio, television and film at Temple University. A former production photographer for major motion picture companies, he has been shooting portraits for models and actors in Milan, Paris, Los Angeles and New York for the past 25 years. For further info: readingpublicmuseum.org