"Lovely to meet you. Please take your clothes off"

Artist Min Maude is exhibiting at Chichester’s Oxmarket Contemporary from August 4-14 in celebration of her 80th birthday.

“My paintings are about places and things, rather than of them. A number are based on maps as I travelled a lot and recently about music. I worked in the theatre and film industry. I was head of wardrobe at the Old Vic in London and then in opera and ballet, before moving into films. I originally wanted to be a painter but I needed to earn a living and female painters in the 60s were not making much!

“I fell on my feet and had a great life working with crazy, fun, talented people and doing incredible things. I’m celebrating this in my show, no complaints, no regrets… well, one or two!”

Min studied fashion and textiles in Nottingham, followed by postgraduate theatre design before working extensively in theatre and the film industry. As a painter she has exhibited with The Moncrieff Bray Gallery, Kevis House Gallery, The Jose Show, Art London and the Arundel and Chichester Art Trails.

“I spent 20 years working in theatre and the film industry, as a costume supervisor. My introduction to actors was ‘Lovely to meet you. Please take your clothes off.’ I have seen more than my fair share of people in their underwear which is probably why I don’t do life painting!

“I travelled on tour to America, China, Australia, Japan and all over Europe, doing Shakespeare with Ian McKellen and Derek Jacobi. That probably prompted my love of maps.

“Working with famous people can be surreal. I watched Dr No with Sean Connery on a boat in Nassau, took Barry Humphries to the loo at the top of the Eiffel Tower dressed as Dame Edna and played a nurse opposite Jodi Foster because the extra didn’t turn up. But the pinnacle of my career was as Meryl Streep’s hands in The French Lieutenant’s Woman as she had to go back to the States. My co-star was Jeremy Irons. But I have also had my share of working all night and sleeping on a pile of costumes in The Old Vic.

“My first love was always painting and I was lucky enough to pursue that after I married late in life and moved to Bosham. I have had a terrific life and finally I get to do what I set out to do when I was young. Not many people are so lucky.”