Watercolor Study in Ab Octaves No. 1 — Watercolor on Paper by Arnaud Quercy

About This Artwork

Arnaud Quercy translates a piano étude into color in this watercolor from the Octaves series, part of the Harmonic Crossing collection. The work takes a specific chord — the Ab octave spanning Ab0, Bb2, D4, G4, A4, and E5 — and renders each note as a color value. The result is a direct mapping from harmonic structure to visual form, where musical interval becomes chromatic range.

Warm gray and muted rose tones fill most of the surface, building a field that reads as both background and substance. Cooler dusty mauve areas appear at intervals, shifting the temperature of the overall ground. Against this, a concentrated blue-violet accent — visible as a painted rectangle in the composition's right section — holds the chord's chromatic endpoint. Black ink lines define the geometric forms: a large half-circle occupying the upper right, a small circle near the lower center, and a vertical rectangle in blue. The lines are sparse and precise, drawn over the washed ground. The color data confirms a dominant warm gray range across the surface, with the blue-violet accent representing the harmonic extreme — blue toward black — as stated in the artist's description.

The work measures 21 × 30 cm on paper and weighs 0.1 kg. It belongs to the Octaves series within the Harmonic Crossing collection. The certificate number is 20261002-0186. The work was created on October 2, 2026, at the Rue du Dragon studio in Paris. It was first exhibited at Les Portes du Dragon — Portes ouvertes de la galerie-atelier Art Quam Anima, held at Art Quam Anima, Paris, from October 2 to 4, 2026. The work is currently available.