'It's important to be perverse'

Hambling now divides her time between Suffolk, where a benefactor left her a house, and south London, where she lives in a sprawling terraced-house with her dog, Max. Hamblinginherited Max from her partner, Henrietta Moraes, whose decline and death, in 1999, was the subject of Hambling's last major exhibition at the Marlborough Gallery.

"I'm not as gregarious a person as I used to be. What is important to me, is to be up first thing in the morning and working, which is not to say that I don't have my moments."

The arrangement of her house reflects this divided life: the ground floor dark and chaotic, the upper floor studio light and orderly, disturbed only by the smoker's debris that perpetually surrounds Hambling.

"Cigarettes are the one thing I am political about: I refuse to be photographed without a cigarette in my hand. My father gave up smoking at the age of 59 and lived to 95 so I've got time."

Hambling was born in 1945 in Sudbury, Suffolk. At the age of 14 she attended Benton End art school, where Lucian Freud had studied and where Francis Bacon criticised one of her portraits.

"I was too nervous to take in what he said but I think it was generally encouraging." She was taught by Ewan Uglow at Camberwell School of Art: "I set out to try and get the colour of the model's eyes right, whereas at Camberwell, for many years, no one had painted any features of the face, let alone attempt the right colour. It's all about being true to yourself and not doing what you're told."

In 1980, Hambling was appointed first artist in residence at the National Gallery, where her portrait of a warden-is on permanent display. She has six works in the National Portrait Gallery, 18 at the Tate and has contributed to the gaiety of the nation for decades, with the combination of her flamboyant personality and work that seems to consistently strike a nerve.

Hambling's mission appears to be to ferret out hypocrisy, and perhaps this contributes to the consternation or "fuss" as she puts it that consistently surrounds her major projects. neighbour, Frances Rose, alongside Hogarth's portrait of the Bishop of Winchester in 2000.

She also refused a doctorate in the same year from the University of East Anglia, robed and on stage, because she realised they had closed down the art room at her old college and felt that she should make a stand. "I think being perverse is quite important."

Yet, despite her delight in defiance, Hambling is preoccupied and perturbed by the mixed response to her memorial to Benjamin Britten which was erected on Aldeburgh beach last year.

The Scallop, a 12ft steel sculpture in the shape of a shell, has provoked immense hostility from local residents, who are still trying to get it removed. "I'm very surprised by their reaction," says Hambling. "In my naivety, I thought people would be pleased to have the sculpture after all, what could be more innocent than a shell?

"When the most recent lot of paint was thrown at the sculpture, I went to have a look and it did occur to me it was far from the sort of paint I'd have chosen, a particularly unpleasant shade of green and red.

"I try to laugh about it but it's hard. I put two years of my life into it and I had a show of paintings of the North Sea last year that sold out and £200 from each went to the sculpture fund. No public money was involved at all."

It seems likely to me that Hambling's empathy with Michael Jackson, and to a certain extent with the Royal Academy, may be to do with the trivialisation of creativity. The emphasis of contemporary culture on the power of personality is in danger of reducing public life to the significance of a game show.

"I felt and feel that Michael Jackson in his current situation is a victim of the media and of manipulative people," says Hambling. "Humanity is what interests and frightens me. I feel a great empathy with Michael Jackson: he's very vulnerable, and that reminds us how vulnerable human nature makes us all."

Maggi Hambling's Michael Jackson portrait goes on display at Marlborough Fine Art's summer show, 27 July-31 August, at 6 Albemarle Street, W1 (020 7629 5161)