Saugus Library art classes draw raves and crowds

SAUGUS – The community room in the Saugus Library was transformed into a makeshift art studio recently, as award-winning pastel artist Gregory Maichack gave a class on pastels called “Que Sera, Seurat!”More than 20 people filled six plastic folding tables set up in the room. Each budding artist received his or her own pastels and paper to work with as Maichack taught the class about the styles that made artists like Georges Pierre Seurat and Claude Monet famous.Mary O?Connell, head of the reference department at the library, said the class is the most popular adult program the library offers.?His classes are always full,” said O?Connell. “He?s a great teacher and people always rave about him.”Carol Andreucci lives in Saugus and has taken one of Maichack?s classes before. She said she is a fan of both his art and his teaching style.?He has a very good presentation style,” said Andreucci, a retired first-grade teacher. “He?s very interesting and informative. He has us all do things with him so it?s hands-on. I enjoy that. I?ve learned to keep an open mind and to let your creative juices flow. I just like his teaching style. It?s nonjudgmental, which is the way art should be.”Doris Napier has also taken Maichack?s class before and said she is eager to learn more about pastels.?I?m already taking classes for acrylics and I?ve done some charcoal so this is a new medium for me,” said Napier. “You can kind of swish it around more with your hands so you can give it a little more softness. But I need to know how to do more shading.”Maichack set up three easels in the front of the class, each with a copy of Monet?s famous “Morning Mists on the Seine at Giverny”Maichack, who works at the Museum Studio School in Springfield and Greenfield Community College, also showed the class a pastel he did of the outgoing president of Westfield State.?When I do a portrait I do it pretty slowly and I kind of brush the pastel on,” said Maichack. “We?re going to learn all of these strokes just what I do when I do a portrait. Today we?re going to do a landscape and I?ll show you the intricacies of things like these branches, where they look semi-transparent.”Maichack also taught the class about blending, layering and pointillism, where tiny dots are used to form an image.?That becomes so repetitive when you do it that it can become tedious,” said Maichack.Matt Tempesta can be reached at [email protected].