This all-new “The Seahorse: How to Pastel Paint,” all draw a seahorse OR use a template that Maichack provides, both large and small seahorses. We also create bubbles, and a template will be provided as well. This is fun, and has an ocean of possibilities, having instruction in expressive pastel strokes, blending, slurring, and layering. All keep their 12 X 18 pastel painting of their personalized vivid seahorse. Photo references of various pastel seahorses are supplied for ideas allowing unfathomable possibilities. Maichack’s own pastel painted seahorses will unveil the process. All will be entertained by lively anecdotes on the mystery of seahorses.

Maichack, is an award-winning artist, twice Mass. Cultural Council Gold Star Award Program nominee, a seasoned pro from instructing at the Museum of Fine Arts (MFA) Boston, colleges, to 100's of libraries. Maichack lives in the Berkshires and is a portraitist and painter working primarily in pastels. Winner of the Award of Merit from the Bennington Center for the Arts: Impressions of New England Show 2003, he also was awarded the Savoir-faire Pastel Award from the Great Lakes Pastel Society. Maichack was commissioned by Westfield State University to paint the pastel portrait of the past president of Westfield State University, Doctor Frederick Woodward, which was unveiled at the dedication of the Woodward Center; and pastel painted dictionary great Charles Merriam, unveiled by Merriam-Webster Co. at Merriam-Gilbert Library. He has been in many national juried shows and was awarded numerous Massachusetts Cultural Council grants. In addition to portraiture, his still lifes and landscapes are represented by galleries from Kennebunkport, Maine to San Francisco, California. Maichack is accepting requests to do various commissions to do pastel paintings. Visit his web site at www.GregoryMaichack.com. 

     Maichack has been a faculty member of the Museum Studio School in the Fine Arts Museum Quadrangle in Springfield, MA; and taught at Holyoke and Greenfield Community Colleges, Westfield State University, East Works, the MFA, Boston, and The Guild, Northampton. Maichack’s pastel paintings have been selected twice for the Annual National Exhibition of the Academic Artists Association and as a result Maichack was invited to be a member of this prestigious organization.

This program is supported in part by a grant from the Westfield cultural council, a local agency which is supported by the Mass Cultural Council, a state agency.