Les Portes du Dragon
From Friday 2 to Sunday 4 October 2026, the Art Quam Anima gallery-atelier opens its doors at 28 rue du Dragon, in Saint-Germain-des-Prés, for the Journées Nationales des Artistes — France's national open-studio weekend. Three consecutive days, 11am to 8pm, free entry. For these open days, Arnaud Quercy welcomes Caroline Lopez, who shares the space throughout: on one side the paintings and sculptures made in the studio, on the other her handmade artist's books. Two distinct crafts, two relationships to material, under one roof for a weekend.
The Journées Nationales des Artistes, organised by La Maison des Artistes, invite the public into the places where work is made rather than where it is displayed. That is exactly the spirit in which rue du Dragon opens here: not a shop window but a working space you can walk through freely, look at what is on the walls, ask a question, come back later in the day. The hang draws on Arnaud Quercy's painting practice, in which each canvas begins with a harmonic progression and translates it into a colour composition — a method he calls ideamorphism.
Two moments punctuate each day. Caroline Lopez presents her artist's books — binding, paper, forming: entirely handmade volumes, shown and discussed by the person who makes them (Friday and Saturday at midday, Sunday at 2pm). At 6pm every day comes "Piano & painting: ideamorphism live", in which Arnaud Quercy plays jazz harmonic progressions at the piano and shows, on a selection of paintings, what each chord becomes once carried onto canvas. The demonstration also addresses his colour blindness, which is not an obstacle worked around but one of the reasons this system of correspondences exists at all. Drinks follow at the entrance — prosecco and fruit juice.
On Sunday morning the studio hands over to the public with the "Paint the Music" workshop (11am–1pm): painting while listening, no prior experience required, guided by Arnaud Quercy. Twelve participants maximum, €70 per person, booking required. It is the only paid element of the weekend, and the most direct: after three days spent watching how sound becomes colour for someone else, you try it yourself.
Artist Statement
Opening the studio for three days running is not about showing finished works. It is about letting people see a place where work happens, with its tools, its trials and its canvases still waiting. The Journées Nationales des Artistes make that kind of visit possible without an appointment or a protocol.
Inviting Caroline Lopez follows the same logic. Her artist's books rely on patient manual craft, far removed from the way I paint — and it is precisely that proximity that makes the space worth entering during these three days. Two practices with neither the same gestures nor the same materials, but the same insistence on being made by hand.
As for the 6pm performance, its purpose is to make visible something I usually do alone: play a sequence of chords and show, alongside it, what that sequence becomes in paint. Colour blindness is part of the explanation. It is because I do not perceive certain colours the way most people do that I needed a stable system of correspondences between pitch and hue.
Logistics
The Art Quam Anima gallery-atelier is open on Friday 2, Saturday 3 and Sunday 4 October 2026, from 11am to 8pm continuously. Entry is free and requires no registration: come in, leave, come back. The address is 28 rue du Dragon, 75006 Paris, a few minutes on foot from Saint-Germain-des-Prés (line 4) and Sèvres-Babylone (lines 10 and 12).
Artist's book presentations take place at midday on Friday and Saturday and at 2pm on Sunday; the piano-and-painting performance, followed by drinks at the entrance, takes place daily at 6pm. Both are open without booking, subject to available space.
Only the "Paint the Music" workshop on Sunday morning (11am–1pm) requires a reservation: twelve participants maximum, €70 per person, materials provided, no prior experience needed. Bookings are handled by the gallery, via artquamanima.com or in person during opening days. The ground floor is step-free; for accessibility questions or group visits, contacting the gallery in advance is advisable.
