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Fabulous interview at Charleston Farmhouse as part of the Charleston Festival with the artist Maggi Hambling.

I heard  Hambling at Charleston a couple of years ago and just loved her and this interview did not disappoint. She is wonderfully irascible and yet very endearing which seems a strange mix. Even while being introduced she was raising a rye but visible eyebrow at some of the praise for her and you immediately know she is going to be trouble, fun but trouble.

The talk focused on the role drawing has played throughout her career in the light of a recent exhibition at the British Museum and its catalogue. She talked a lot about her early training at the East Anglian School of Painting and Drawing under Cedric Morris and Lett Haines and at other art schools. I loved her stories about being the first artist in residence at the National Gallery including opening her studio for one afternoon a week.

The brave interviewer, Simon Martin from Pallant House, used pictures from the exhibition to guide the interview but I loved the way Hambling just barked “next” when she wanted to move on. She gave Martin an amusingly hard time but I am sure he knew what he was in for and enjoyed it. 

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