Bb Major - Variations 17 — Acrylic on Paper by Arnaud Quercy

About This Artwork

This painting translates a piano étude into color. Arnaud Quercy maps the Bb Major triad — Bb0, D3, D4, D5 — onto a visual field using a harmonic-chromatic system drawn from piano studies and cycle of fifth mapping. Each note in the chord corresponds to a specific color or tonal range. The work belongs to the Bb Major series within the Harmonic Crossing collection, which explores the relationship between musical harmony and color.

Warm neutral tones fill most of the surface — tans, rosy browns, and muted gray-beiges spread across the composition in broad vertical bands. These warm mid-tones are the dominant presence. Cooler gray and red-orange areas occupy substantial portions of the surface, anchoring the warmer zones. A deep, very dark red appears in a focused area, and black provides a sharp accent at the lower right. A small pale near-white zone sits near the top center, offering the lightest point in the composition. The palette reads as violet toward black, orange, and red-violet — the chromatic translation of the Bb Major chord as defined by the artist's system. The work is painted in acrylic on paper, with flat, clearly bounded color areas separated by thin black outlines. The vertical format reinforces the stacked, register-like arrangement of color zones.

The painting measures 21 × 15 cm and weighs 0.1 kg. It is the seventeenth variation in the Bb Major series. The work was created on October 2, 2026, at the Rue du Dragon studio in Paris. It was first shown publicly at Les Portes du Dragon, the open studio exhibition at Art Quam Anima, Paris, from October 2 to 4, 2026. The certificate number is 20261002-0178. The work is currently available.