Marie-Claudine Llamas

Someone yesterday asked me about my work, and it reminded me of how passionate I am about what I do. I was brought up in Paris, where I was spending week ends studying at Les Ateliers des Arts Décos (Ecoles du Louvre). I moved to London and finished my A levels @queensgateschool . I then went on to do an art foundation and degree @cglartschool , whilst spending summers @charlescecilstudios in Florence. It was whilst I was at City Guilds that I started curating shows with my fellow students and tutors’ works, so I fell into curation very organically. My background is in fine art, which means that I’m aware of the process artists go through when making work. I love having a practice based education, it feeds directly into my curational process. When planning an exhibition, I am deeply involved in the development of the works, which means I really know the pieces which I’m hanging. Each exhibition I curate is the result of months, sometimes years of conversations and critical work with the artist. It’s my favourite part of the job. It’s so important to love the work and the person behind the works, it means that once the pieces are up on the wall of the booth/gallery I can truly describe with enthusiasm and awareness what the images are about. I’ll only take part in a fair or organise an exhibition if I have the perfect fit for it, it’s not about just doing projects, it’s about how tailored a situation can be for an artist, the work needs to be valued and in the right context, to give it the targeted attention it deserves!

📚 📸 by the wonderful @duross

Got my baby back

Went to Aix and ate some chouquettes

Loved rediscovering Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec at Centre d’Art Caumont in Aix. A true witness to his time: a flâneur of late 19th-century Paris, with Montmartre and the Moulin Rouge as his playground. Both observer and participant, he must have been fascinating to be around. His friendship with Pierre Bonnard feels tangible, you can sense how their practices fed into one another. The freedom of his lithographic line feels so immediate, so unrestrained and perfectly mirrors the energy and looseness of the time. #henridetoulouselautrec #moulinrouge #belleepoque #lithograph

Watching roses bloom

Thinking of Nancy Fouts today, on what would have been her birthday. One of the wittiest people I’ve ever met. Picture via @flowersgallery #nancyfouts

She purrs

🇫🇷

Stefan Zweig was one of my first literary obsessions. Twenty-Four Hours in the Life of a Woman unearthed something in me… and I still return to him in moments of doubt #stefanzweig

Bath-London-Provence this week

Throwback to the Peter Doig at Serpentine Peter Doig is one of my favourite painters, each brushstroke he makes leaves a kind of magic on the canvas. His work drifts between memory and myth, quietly shaped by the spiritual language of Rastafari. The lions that appear feel almost otherworldly, they are symbols of strength and protection, but also something more elusive, like guardians of a world that never fully reveals itself #peterdoig @serpentineuk #paintingnow #rastafari