Above: Maggi Hambling. 
Wave Breaking, Morning 2007.
Exhibited in the exhibition The Sea: paintings by LS Lowry & Maggi Hambling. Salford.
"Maggi Hambling won't be photographed without a cigarette. She doesn't smoke any more, but it's a point of principle. The woman who once appeared on a TV quiz show sporting a moustache, and who has often been snapped at parties in feather boas, fishnets and fedoras and who, following the death of her toothless, alcoholic lesbian lover, did a series of paintings celebrating the potency of Special Brew, believes that it's important to make a stand. She believes it's important to make a stand for the right to smoke what you want, drink what you want, wear what you want and love who you want. Maggi Hambling, creator of paintings and sculptures of sometimes breathtaking humanity, believes it's important to be free."
