Saugus art class catches the details in downtown

SAUGUS – For this group, the challenge was in the architectural details, and the 19th century Town Hall has plenty of them.Around 15 aspiring artists gathered on the front lawn of the Saugus Library Wednesday afternoon to sketch the historic Town Hall building.The sketch class was led by local architect Stephen Rich, who has held several similar classes at the library over the past year.?It?s a lot of fun,” said Rich. “I don?t do it for any other reason than to see people, some who have never drawn at all and some who have done some drawing, to see what they come up with. They take pride in these drawings. It?s incredible. That?s when you feel like you?ve contributed something.”Participants sat at four plastic folding tables across from Town Hall as each person had a piece of white paper with a pre-sketched outline of the building, a ruler, pens and, of course, coffee and donuts.View photos from the classRich gave the class an outline of the Town Hall which they traced in with pen. From there they added the details of the building and landscape on their own.?It?s a very complicated building,” said Rich. “That?s why I gave them the image I did so they?d have a good head start. They could never do this in two hours. It?s high Victorian. One of the tricky things to draw is the little arches on the windows and the entrance with the columns. Any place you look requires the same amount of detail.”Mary Hohmann said she attended the library?s pastel drawing class several weeks ago, which rekindled her interest in art.?I thought this would be fun,” she said. “I used to do some drawing years ago and haven?t done it for a long time, so I thought it would be fun to try it again.”Wayne Pace brought his 7-year-old son, Matthew.?He just loves drawing so I figured this would just get him exposed to something,” said Pace. “He loves drawing superheroes, and he does Legos. He likes doing stories. I figure he?ll probably write a book because he does words on one page and pictures on the other.”Matthew Pace said he likes drawing “funny things” like “gorilla monkeys.”Jean Bartolo said she was getting back into art after she used to work as a commercial artist. Despite the heat, Bartolo said everyone was having fun sketching Wednesday.?It?s OK. We can handle it,” she said. “We?re Saugonians. We?re tough.”Matt Tempesta can be reached at [email protected].