C Octaves - Reflexions 23 — Acrylic on Linen Canvas by Arnaud Quercy

About This Artwork

C Octaves — Reflexions 23 translates a single piano étude into color. Arnaud Quercy takes the note C played across multiple octaves — C2, C3, C4 and higher — each struck and held open with the sustain pedal. The work maps how a single pitch, repeated through the registers with all strings left to ring, produces layered resonance. It belongs to the Octaves series within the Synesthetic Explorations collection, which explores connections between sound and visual form.

Warm orange tones fill most of the canvas, ranging from pale salmon and soft terra cotta through deeper indian red and burnt sienna. A vivid red-orange column runs vertically near the center of the composition, carrying the most saturated color in the work. Cooler gray and warm gray-brown areas appear throughout, occupying substantial portions of the surface and providing contrast to the orange field. Dark near-black zones anchor the lower left and lower center. A small blue-gray accent appears at the upper right edge, the sole cool note in an otherwise warm composition. The forms are geometric and vertical — stacked rectangular planes and tall columns organized across the picture plane. The painting is executed in acrylic on linen canvas.

The work measures 100 × 81 cm and is classified as monumental in scale. It was painted in January 2024 at the artist's studio at 17 avenue d'Italie, Paris. The certificate number is 20240718-0194. The painting was shown at a Paris Studio Visit in February 2025, at the Salon d'art contemporain — Metamorphose 2025–2026 at the Halle des Blancs Manteaux in Paris, and at Through the Aperture — Research on Harmony at Art Quam Anima, Paris, from March to May 2026. The work was acquired by a collector in Dallas, USA, in May 2026.