The Woman Reading — Sand on Beach by Arnaud Quercy
Sand on Beach, 120.0×150.0×15.0cm
Arnaud Quercy, 2022 — Spain
A fleeting meditation carved into the shore—stillness itself, captured before the tide erased it.
Technical Specifications
- Medium: Sand on Beach
- Dimensions: 120.0×150.0×15.0cm
- Weight: 93.0 kg
- Created: 2022, Spain
- Certificate: 20221231-0050
- SKU: Arnaud Quercy Creations / AQC0380 / 2022
Display Information: Base/pedestal not included. Available on request.
- ✓ Original artwork, handcrafted by Arnaud Quercy
- ✓ Certificate of authenticity included
Arnaud Quercy is a Parisian artist working across painting, music, and sculpture. His practice is grounded in Ideamorphism — the principle that a work of art does not carry meaning, but triggers it. Each piece is engineered to diffract differently through each person who encounters it.
He creates and exhibits at Art Quam Anima, his gallery-atelier at 28 rue du Dragon, Saint-Germain-des-Prés, Paris.
About This Artwork
This ephemeral sand bas-relief captures a moment of quiet contemplation through the figure of a woman absorbed in reading. Created on Salou Beach in Spain during August 2022, the work belongs to the Mediterranean Echoes collection and explores themes of stillness, solitude, and the inner journey that accompanies travel. Working at monumental scale on the shoreline itself, Quercy transformed the beach into a temporary gallery where art and nature became inseparable collaborators.
Earth tones dominate the composition, with warm browns and tans ranging from deep umber to light cream reflecting the natural coloring of Mediterranean sand. The figure emerges through geometric abstraction, its angular forms suggesting a head bent in concentration and hands cradling a book. Cubist influences appear in the fragmented planes that compose the body, while the bas-relief technique creates subtle shadows and depth as sunlight moves across the surface throughout the day.
The 120 × 150 cm format places the sculpture at human scale, inviting viewers to encounter the figure as a fellow presence on the shoreline. As part of a series that also honored jazz legends Thelonious Monk and Charlie Parker, this piece offered a more introspective counterpoint—stillness amid sound, reading amid improvisation. The work existed only briefly before the tide reclaimed it, transforming creation into performance and impermanence into meaning.
The artwork is documented under certificate of authenticity #20221231-0050.
Where this work lives
Provenance
- Origin: Arnaud Quercy, Spain, 2022
- Series: Ephemeral Sand Sculptures
- Collection: Untamed Creations
- Technique: Sand
Other works in this series 4
Documented at 5
- Catalogue Raisonné — The Woman Reading — The Woman Reading — Ephemeral Sand Bas-Relief — Arnaud Quercy (2022)
- Nanopublication — The Woman Reading — Physical Specifications
- Nanopublication — The Woman Reading — Ideamorphic Geometric Translation of Reading Figure
- Nanopublication — The Woman Reading — Sand as Enactment of Reading's Ephemerality
- Nanopublication — The Woman Reading — Digital Image Documentation - aqc0380_img_full_1536x2048_webp
Thematic Elements 10
Collection Notice
This work is part of the artist's permanent collection and is not available for acquisition.
