On the heels of The Other Art Fair London, I had the opportunity to visit Paris for pleasure rather than work for the first time in over 25 years – I made a B-line for Musée Picasso… I try to pay attention to why certain pieces attract my attention, in general I preferred the understated and the unusual – these were my favourite Picasso works on show…

I love the simple, raw quality of this painting, the oxblood background painted in, the charcoal drawing direct to canvas left bare…

Like layers of tracing paper, we can see the creative history of this drawing behind the final version…

Colourful, small, reclining nude painted on the lid of a box…

Challenging yet compelling sculpture, love/hate…

From a series of crucifixion studies, others were more polished, but its exactly for the reason that this one is not that attracts me to it…

There’s a lot going on for a painting that initially looks so simple – on the beach reclining in different positions, with a sun that transforms into a swimmer, really clever, and I love the geometry, obviously…

One of my favourites… apart from the simple elegance of this painting, it has inspired me to drag out all my old score paintings from 20 years ago – first time I’ve seen Picasso use this technique, reminds me of pottery…

I’m fascinated by old photos of artists work, studios and exhibitions. In particular, its the piece top right that got my attention…

…blindingly simple, gratifyingly raw, a compelling abstract composition – very very cool.

Picasso Musée is in a really nice part of town, the 15 minute walk from Notre Dame takes you across the river into a pretty area heavily populated with cafés, galleries, boutiques… en route, we even got to talking with Hollywood scriptwriter Michel Fessler (March Of The Penguins) and his wife Katarina over a coffee, so you never know who you will bump into… definitely worth a visit.

Photographs: Vesna Milinkovic