About the Artist

A STUNNING five-foot watercolour of the Grand Canal in Venice has been painted by a Wadhurst man to raise money to keep the Samaritans in Tunbridge Wells running for a month.

Nicholas de Maid of Mayfield Lane spent all of January creating the 5ft 4ins wide picture and has made 50 limited edition copies, at a “much more manageable” 36ins wide.

The 56-year-old, who has been a Samaritan for about ten years, is responsible for training new volunteers at the town branch, which costs between £70 and £85 a day to run.

The high quality reproductions, inspired by Mr de Maid’s trip last year to Venice, are £85 to buy.

Mr de Maid said: “We are always in need of two things. Firstly, new volunteers to listen to those who need us; on the phones, in person, by e-mail and text. All these are important means of contact for those who have feelings of suicide or who are depressed or in despair. We also need money. Being a voluntary organisation, we need to raise funds to survive. Every one of us at Tunbridge Wells is a volunteer and each branch has to raise its own funds.”

http://www.samaritans.org/	http://rnli.org