Shoppers in the Old Mill District Thursday morning might encounter something that’s not on their shopping list: Artists in Action, happening every other Thursday from 10 a.m. to noon around the Old Mill.

As the event’s name suggests, Artists in Action features a number of artists from Tumalo Art Co., Lubbesmeyer Art Studio & Gallery and the summertime pop-up Nature Inspired Photography & Furniture plying their trades in the field, as well as sharing their expertise via walks and talks.

The event, taking place through September, is the brainchild of Tumalo Art Co. member Susan Luckey Higdon.

“I was looking for something to kind of energize things this summer, and it’s so busy down at the Old Mill all the time I think the locals don’t come down,” she said. “I was there (one) morning, I thought, ‘Wow, there’s lots of parking spaces. We ought to do something.’ But I think it’s really been fun for the artists to get out and do something.’”

Higdon, a wildlife and landscape painter who favors acrylics, took part in the first Artists in Action event on July 12 and plans to continue. She and two other artists from Tumalo Art Co., pastel artist Marty Stewart and watercolorist Sarah B. Hansen, set up their easels near the river. On Thursday, Higdon will be joined by painter David Kinker.

“I don’t do that much plein air, so it was really just a good exercise to get out there and set up and just do something,” Higdon said. “There are so many people walking by on the trail. … People could stop by and talk to us and see what we were doing.”

Stewart said she’ll be taking part in each of the Artists in Action events, which continue through September. Tumalo Art Co. is an artist-run gallery, with each of the member artists taking shifts working in the shop. Because she works on Thursday, she’ll be setting up to paint at the shop instead of next to the Deschutes. She said she liked getting outside to paint “more than I expected, to tell you the truth. I’ve been a plein air painter for years, but not so much lately — you know, all the baggage you have to carry and set up, weather. … We had a great time. It was so fun and people stopped and talked and asked. They were interested.”

What’s more, she was happy with what she painted. “I did a really good painting. It’s just a little 8-by-10,” she said.

The public will be able to see it, and other paintings from the project, when Tumalo Art Co. hosts a show devoted to the pieces being created during Artists in Action.

Twin artists Lori and Lisa Lubbesmeyer, who jointly run Lubbesmeyer Art Studio & Gallery, located on the second floor of the same building that houses Tumalo, had a different experience with their plein air painting last week, Lisa said.

“Being that we don’t paint plein air, we approached it the same as we always do, which is let it just be open, and let’s react to each other,” she said.

The canvas was small, and their alloted time of two hours fairly limiting. “No area on the canvas (was) big enough for the paint to dry, so we were just mixing wet on wet, creating a lot of muddy colors. All the while, neither of us was looking at the same thing, so I think we painted five different paintings by the time we were done,” she said, laughing. “That was part of the learning. We’ll have a different approach” on Thursday.

Aesthetics have long been a part of the Old Mill District, Lisa noted, right down to the landscaping and abundance of flowers in bloom, and the footprint of art there seems to be growing. Paint abounds on walls as you stroll through the Old Mill, including murals behind The Gap, in the tunnels under Columbia and Colorado avenues, and even painted stairs near Ben and Jerry’s.

In May, Visit Bend and the Old Mill District partnered to expand into the Old Mill the Tin Pan Alley Art Collection, which features more than two dozen pieces in alleys and the parking garage in downtown Bend. The Lubbesmeyers contributed one of the four pieces in the Old Mill’s portion of the collection. The painting, titled “You Have No Idea How Much You Mean to People,” depicts hillside homes at night and includes text. The two solicited their social media audience to contribute to the painting, and the phrases came from all over the world — “everyone matters,” “do not fret” and “keep moving” among them.

“I do think the public art pieces that are going up on the walls definitely add (something),” Lisa said. “I’ve seen people doing a tour of the art down here. They’ve been specifically visiting for that. … Lori and I have always seen this as a very creative space in the sense of how they designed the hard and soft space around here.”

Higdon agrees.

“It seems like there’s getting to be a lot more to see on the outside, and that’s always been a value for the Old Mill,” she said. “They’ve always been supportive of the arts.”

Old Mill District Marketing Director Noelle Fredland said, “We’ve been consistently trying to add more and more art.”

Case in point: Three large pieces by Sisters artist Dennis McGregor will be installed sometime in early fall, near Cafe Yumm.

The presence of art alters an area for the better, Fredland said.

“It’s a place maker. It’s memorable. It encourages people to be more interactive with their environment,” she said. “All those things, I think, are super important.”