Volunteer story: Maggy

Hello,

My name is Maggy and I’ve been volunteering at Living Paintings for five years, working a few hours each week in the production room as a painter.

Since a small child, I’ve always drawn or painted so I thoroughly enjoy painting the feely pictures for Living Paintings’ different publications. We’re usually given a set of five blank images to complete over a number of weeks using a set of paints.

Depending upon the shade we’re using, we have to re-paint each part two, three, perhaps four times in order to achieve a good depth of colour. Going around the edges can be tricky, especially as some paints are more runny than others. Occasionally, you can hear a cry of despair from a painter when a small trickle of paint runs into a crevice, “Oh no! I’ve got a dribble!”.

Volunteering at Living Paintings has given me the opportunity to continue doing something I’ve always loved but putting it to good use is very satisfying. I’m just one person in a large team of people from diverse backgrounds and together we enable others to access the joy of books, something the majority of us take for granted.