( 1 ) Coronation Street is a British soap opera set on a cobbled street in Greater Manchester. First aired in 1960, it holds the record as the world’s longest-running TV soap.Its storylines often reflect contemporary social concerns, cementing its place in British popular culture.
Received WisdomBritish painter Maggi Hambling reflects on a life in art.
Received WisdomBritish painter Maggi Hambling reflects on a life in art.
When I was a student at the Slade, my tutor, the painter Robyn Denny, said there will come a moment when you see yourself in your work, and that’s what you’ve got to work with. He said a lot of people are so appalled or shocked when they see themselves that they pretend they’re somebody else for the rest of their life.
That hasn’t happened to me, though people seem to think I’m rather scary, which I don’t understand—inside I feel like a Jelly Baby. I unwind by following the tennis and watching Coronation Street, which is addictive.1 I’m absolutely devoted to it.
Life dictates what I paint. If someone I love very much dies, I know I’m painting them after they’re dead. The jazz singer George Melly said I should go down in art history as “Maggi Coffin Hambling.” I would refuse to paint Mrs. Thatcher, because art is about the hand and the heart, but the heart is the most important, and what I felt about Mrs. Thatcher wasn’t exactly love. If I could paint any living person, I think it would be the Dalai Lama—bring him here!
When I paint portraits, I try to channel the person in front of me. Likeness happens as a by-product of trying to paint the spirit of a person. Art should move people, and I think a piece can only move someone else insofar as the subject has moved the artist in the first place. As my first art teacher, Yvonne Drewry, said, “The subject chooses you, you don’t choose the subject.” So I try to be as moved as I can be by the subject, and then I hope the work moves other people.
