CHATS...

In Paris last weekend I was intending to see the Eileen Gray exhibition, when I kept coming across this funny poster for another exhibition: Les Chats. Yes, paintings of cats. I did walk past the Pompidou Centre, intending to stick to my Eileen plan, but it was the final day of the big Dali exhibition and the queues stretched for miles. Chats it was. I made my way over to the Quai des Orfevres and found myself in a room covered floor to ceiling in hundreds of small paintings of cats, by different artists. Many oil paintings; some er, better captures of the feline soul than others. The pinnacle of naive art. But while I was there I discovered the incredible work of Christel Le Vaillant. Cats in clothes, like painted cats from a Lula editorial. I felt sudden, joyous waves of love.

I snatched up as many postcards of Christel Le Vaillant's work as I could - there's one of a tough tabby cat wearing a striped breton top, battered jeans and a biker jacket that is unbelievable. I'll try to scan it, except my scanner is now defunct and being used as a cat bed. Chats!