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"The older I get I identify with the land which is being eroded. The sea is like time - you can do nothing about it.

"Death will come, the sea will come. So, I'm a rather pathetic bit of land with the great sea coming at me as a metaphor for time. It's a metaphor for life - the constant movement of it.

"It's coming towards me, there's nothing I can do about it. There's nothing any of us can do about the fact we're going to die."

According to its creator, sitting on Scallop is supposed to be a time for reflecting on the meaning of life, the universe and everything.

Scallop

"Aldeburgh was my childhood bit of sea. I was inspired by seeing fireworks on the night of the Coronation in 1952 - dark night sky, dark night sea," said Maggi Hambling.

"And that was where Scallop was really conceived, when I was seven, but you never know when these things are going to choose to come out."

Maggi was born in Sudbury in 1945 and went to Hadleigh Hall School and then Amberfield at Nacton where she was taught art by her 'mentor' Yvonne Drewry. She joined the East Anglian School of Painting & Drawing at 15 and came under the influence of Cedric Morris and Lett Haines.

Her formal education continued at Ipswich Art School (now part of Suffolk New College) and then in London at Camberwell and Slade.

Shelling out

In 2003, Scallop was unveiled at the northern end of Aldeburgh beach as a tribute to composer Benjamin Britten who was born in Lowestoft, founded the Aldeburgh Festival and wrote one of his most famous operas, Peter Grimes, about the life of a local fisherman.

The Β£75,000 installation is made of stainless steel and struts go down from the sculpture to a sort of subterranean large tray. The shingle sits on the tray holding the sculpture in place on the beach.

Benjamin Britten

The artwork attracted controversy straight away with many complaints that it was inappropriate to have a 3 metre tall sculpture on the 'heritage coast'.

However, it's also proved very popular with visitors and is surrounded on days when the weather's fine. There have also been marriages and funerals at the site.

"That explosion of those fireworks was something like the explosion of Britten's music. The Scallop explodes out of the shingle," said Maggi.

"The juxtaposition of the sculpture to the sea is crucially important - the way the undulations of the shell echo the waves and the whole point is a conversation with the sea.

"It's a bit like having a drink. You have a drink when you're miserable and a drink when you're happy.

"You could come to Scallop when you're miserable and have a conversation with the sea - that's what it's about.

"But it's quite difficult to catch it on its own. Throughout the year it's covered with children, and that's terrific, but it's hardly a solitary place!"

Positive currents

In 30 November 2002, Maggi started her series of North Sea paintings. She said she had a sudden dawning: "I'd come to look at the sea in the morning with the storm raging and waves charging and then I went back to my studio.

"I was actually painting, from memory, a little portrait of a beggar I'd seen in London. And I looked out of the window and the storm was still crashing around the water meadows and thought 'why are you painting a beggar in the middle of this exciting storm?'

"That was the beginning. I draw the sea each morning, very early before anyone else is about when it's still dark and often very difficult to see the sea.

"I try to get into the rhythm of it - to start trying to make some pathetic little human marks that might have something to do with the mystery of this great, great thing in front of us."

Made in England

In terms of other English painters, JMW Turner visited Dunwich while John Constable, although more famous for his work in the Dedham Vale, has a painting of Aldeburgh's Martello Tower in Tate Britain.

"I vastly prefer Constable to Turner because the paint is far more rugged and necessary, whereas seems slightly to be showing off with his paint. But Constable's a sky person - I'm more of a sea person.

"What I realise now is that I've always sought out the sea paintings of Matthew Corbet in museums. But it takes a long while for these things to come through.

"This bit of sea - this wild bit, this cold bit, this powerful bit, this frightening bit, this sensual bit - all this could apply to the sea anywhere, but it's my native bit of sea, the bit I remember coming to as a child - the piece of sea I most relate to."

Calm after the storm

Aldeburgh Town Council at Moot Hall has been the first port of call for complaints or praise about Scallop. Town clerk Lindsay Lee said things seem to have calmed down:

"There's nothing palpable - there's no bad feeling any more. The main problem has been the graffiti and vandalism which most people in the town don't like.

Lyrics from Peter Grimes on Scallop

"It's difficult to say what effect it has on tourism. No-one's carried out a survey on whether Scallop brings in tourists, so we can't quantify it."

Simon Loftus, who's the former chairman of Adnam's Brewery in Southwold, helped raise the money for the privately-funded Scallop project. He dealt with the planners and found the engineers, J T Pegg & Sons Ltd. of Aldeburgh, to build it from a scale model.

"I just thought it was an exciting object proposed by Maggi. I thought it would sit well on the beach and I still feel that. It's democratic and unprotected - it was designed to be used.

"The opposition was always much more vocal than it was numerical. As people have got more used to it they've grown to love it. The shops are full of Scallop postcards and mugs."

Maggi herself is optimistic that the attacks on Scallop have stopped: "It's the first new year it hasn't been abused with paint. That's happened 11 times - always the same boring message 'tin can - move it' in a rather repetitive way.

Martello Tower, Aldeburgh

"It just means that it's rather expensive for it to be cleaned off. It's particularly one person who calls themselves The Voices Of The People Of Aldeburgh, but I haven't heard a lot from that person lately.

"But the graffiti hasn't happened this year, so things are looking up!

"If I was going to die tomorrow and had to say what was the most beautiful thing I'd managed to make in the course of my work it would be this. It would be this."

Exhibitions and hung for a horse

In 2009, Maggi Hambling is to hold two major exhibitions in the north west of England. At Liverpool's Walker Gallery her portraits of her friend, the jazz singer George Melly, will be on show. In October, her sea paintings will be part of an exhibition at The Lowry in Greater Manchester.

Closer to home, there'll be an exhibition of North Sea paintings at Snape Maltings Art Gallery throughout June to co-incide with the Aldeburgh Festival.

Maggi is also offering the painting Crest Of A Wave for a 'silent auction' in aid of the Suffolk Punch Trust between 10 May and 30 June 2009.

"My grandfather, at Sheppards' Farm, Tunstall, always had Suffolk Punches and so these were the first working horses I encountered as a child," said Maggi. "Thereafter other breeds paled into insignificance beside such ancient, chunky, chesnut splendour.

"I salute the vital work of the Trust at Hollesley Bay which ensures that our native Suffolk animals are rightly celebrated and perpetuated."

Crest Of A Wave (detail)

To make bids or enquiries telephone 01728 452431. The reserve price for the 10x12 inch oil painting is Β£500.

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