His Passion Reaches Into
Mtendere Children’s Village
“Kingsley Maigwa is my name; I live for art and I paint to live. From the moment I received a slate and pencil at primary school, I became obsessed with drawing. I use oil or acrylic paint on canvas but I like to experiment using fabric and other materials to add a third dimension to the people in my portraits. In the painting here the little girl’s clothes stand out from the background. In other cases a man’s hat rim reaches right out of the picture at you, made of the real material that the paint elsewhere simply imitates.
For the past three years I have been preparing paintings for the American teams that come to Malawi to help the people. I have painted a number of scenes on the Blessings property, and I was able to paint the entire children’s part of the new wing of the hospital. Now I am spending a lot of time helping the children at Mtendere learn to paint. I volunteer and come to their homes each week to encourage them. Some of them are quite good and a number have real talent to paint and draw.
When I am not helping the children I paint the scenes of everyday life that I find around me, both in my home village of Zomba in the southeast part of Malawi and in the capital city of Lilongwe where I now live with my wife and son.
Life is not easy in Malawi but I work extra hard and, God willing, I will be able to continue making a living as an artist.”
The Malawi Project is pleased to be working with Kingsley and have him making this contribution to the future of the children of Mtendere. For more information about Kingsley and his work as a painter contact him at KingMaigwa[at]yahoo.co.uk.
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