C Major - Variation 10 — Watercolor on Paper by Arnaud Quercy

About This Artwork

This work maps the C Major triad — C2, E5, G5, E6 — directly onto color. Each note receives a chromesthetic assignment: red toward black, yellow toward yellow-orange, and red-orange toward orange. The result is a visual score, where harmonic relationships become color relationships. The piece belongs to the Synesthetic Explorations collection and forms part of the C Major series, which examines how musical structure can be translated into painted form.

Warm orange tones fill the composition throughout. Burlywood and tan establish the largest areas, covering the ground and background in layered washes that shift from light to mid-range warmth. Darker salmon and peru tones occupy substantial areas in the mid-composition zones, adding weight and depth. Rosy brown and Indian red appear across supporting areas, pulling the overall palette toward the deeper, more saturated end of the orange range. Red-orange tones — tomato and a very dark red — provide concentrated contrast, particularly in the linear elements and geometric forms visible in the image: a bold semicircle in deep pink-red at left, small rectangular blocks in yellow-orange and orange at lower left, and thin black lines crossing the right half of the composition. A muted yellow-orange accent, close to a warm gray, appears as a minor note against the dominant warm field. The watercolor technique on paper allows the washes to layer and bleed at edges, producing soft gradations between tones.

The work measures 21.0 × 14.8 cm on paper. It was created in January 2025 at the artist's studio, 17 avenue d'Italie, Paris. Certificate number 20250125-0012. The piece has been exhibited in multiple contexts, including the Paris Studio Visit (February 2025), Marché d'Art Contemporain – Seine Port (May 2025), Nuit des Artistes in Saint-Germain-en-Laye (May 2025), Marché de l'Art de Saint-Germain-en-Laye 17ème édition (June 2025), Salon d'art contemporain – Metamorphose 2025–2026 at the Halle des Blancs Manteaux in Paris, and the Art Quam Anima Pre-opening and Through the Aperture — Research on Harmony exhibitions in Paris in early 2026. The work was acquired by a collector in New York in July 2026.