One of Britain's greatest living and controversial artists, Maggi Hambling CBE, has given the special gift of a painting to East Anglian children's charity GeeWizz. Could it find pride of place in your house?
The canvas, Sunrise (measuring 10 x 12 inches), was painted by Hambling in 2020 and is being raffled online until Saturday, July 17 exclusively at geewizzcharity.com, where tickets are priced at £20 each, or six for £100. Proceeds will go directly to funding the installation of creative space and outdoor arts-related activities within the planned redevelopment of the playground at Thomas Wolsey Ormiston Academy in Suffolk.
The school is attended by children and teenagers with special educational needs and high dependency disabilities, and the existing playground is currently inaccessible to children in wheelchairs. The total cost for the build will be over £400,000, with Guy Nicholls, owner of tru7, having donated £100,000 already, and with additional funding achieved by GeeWizz's Ed Sheeran: Made in Suffolk legacy auction.
“We are so very grateful to Maggi Hambling for donating her thought provoking and inspiring Sunrise painting to support the redevelopment of the playground,” Gina Long MBE, founder of GeeWizz, said. “In light of her strong personal connection with Suffolk, we are delighted that Sunrise will leave such an important, lasting legacy to help nurture creativity, especially at a time when it is so important for vulnerable children and young people to learn and play safely outdoors”.
Born in Sudbury, Suffolk in 1945, Hambling first studied locally at Cedric Morris’ and Lett Haines’ East Anglian School of Painting and Drawing at Benton End, Hadleigh, before going to the Ipswich (1962-64), Camberwell (1964-67) and Slade (1967-69) Schools of Art. In 1980 she was appointed as the first contemporary artist in residence at the National Gallery and in 1995 awarded (jointly with Patrick Caulfield) the Jerwood Prize for Painting.
The artist and sculptor has had numerous solo museum exhibitions around the world since 1980 and Scallop, a sculpture celebrating the composer Benjamin Britten on Aldeburgh Beach is one of Suffolk's most famous landmarks.
Her concern about climate change is reflected in a new collaborative work, with sound artist Chris Watson, founding member of the experimental music group Cabaret Voltaire. A response to the continued melting of the polar ice caps, the artistic collaboration is currently on display at Snape Maltings until August 31, 2021.
For further information on the exclusive raffle and the playground project, visit www.geewizzcharity.com and follow on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook for regular updates.
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