Sergio Ramos, David Luiz, Marquinhos, Novak Djokovic, Lewis Hamilton, Olivier Giroud… What do all these champions from PSG, from the world of football in general, and the best tennis players or Formula 1 drivers have in common?
Laury Layani, a 25-year-old Saint-Mandéenne.
In a few years, the Val-de-Marnaise has become one of the best known artists of sportsmen.
“How do I meet them?
On the nerve!
“, she summarizes.
Waiting at the end of matches and training sessions, contacting the organizers of sporting events... Laury uses audacity to provoke these encounters.
“You shouldn't be afraid to wait, you shouldn't be afraid of being disappointed, because it happens to be quick, or it doesn't happen at all.
»
large custom canvases
But the artist has found a trick to catch their attention: his style.
His canvases are large (about one square meter), very colorful and personalized.
"Usually when they pass by, they can't miss it.
“laughs the young woman who has been drawing since she was little.
“The day before, I had learned the name of the hotel where Lewis Hamilton was staying for Paris Fashion Week.
I waited for him for several hours at the exit, with my painting placed on the ground, letting it protrude very slightly so that he could see it and that's what he did, says Laury.
He didn't believe I wanted to give it to him.
He thought I just wanted him to sign an autograph on it."
Panicked in front of the seven-time Formula 1 world champion, Laury even gives him his Navigo pass when he asks for his business card.
His first sports painting: Olivier Giroud
As a teenager, Laury regularly went to training for the French football team in Clairefontaine (Yvelines).
It was there that she offered her first portrait to Olivier Giroud, her idol.
"I've made good progress since then," she says, falling back on a sketch from 2013.
Since their meeting ten years ago, Laury has forged a privileged relationship with the second top scorer in the history of the French team: "He invited me to the Emirates stadium in Milan and as he was injured , I was able to watch the match next to him in the boxes.
It's my best footballing memory, ”she recalls.
He's not the only athlete she's bonded with.
She exchanges regularly by message with Novak Djokovic.
The world number one in tennis hung one of his paintings in his children's room in Serbia.
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“I'm sometimes afraid of not being taken seriously.
When we wait outside, we wait as a fan, and not as an artist.
But I don't shout, I'm still waiting for them to notice me,” says Laury, who doesn't want to be reduced to the image of a groupie.
A discretion that allowed him to gain the trust of athletes and to give them his paintings in more private places.
As during these invitations to the homes of footballers David Luiz and Marquinhos.
She even received an order from a current PSG player, after offering him his portrait.
"I painted a very large painting representing a lion, in the colors of Burundi (where his mother is from), for Thilo Kehrer and I exhibited it for the inauguration of his foundation, it was exceptional", says the portraitist.
“Tsonga will hear about me!
»
Meeting her favorite athletes is also a way for her to make herself known, thanks to the visibility they give her by sharing her paintings on social networks.
After their meeting, Lewis Hamilton, followed by 27.8 million people on Instagram, published Laury's painting on his account.
“I gained 8,000 subscribers all at once, and I've already had several customer orders.
So it helps me to sell more, to find a clientele that is as passionate as I am,” she explains.
At only 25 years old, Laury manages to live from her works, without exhibiting them.
Mainly very colorful paintings of animals.
And is now invited as an artist to certain sporting events.
A next athlete in sight?
Laury already knows him and he will be at Roland-Garros.
“Jo-Wilfried Tsonga is retiring soon, so I promised to give him a canvas.
He's going to hear about me!
".
While waiting for a possible presence at the Formula 1 Grand Prix de France…
