Charlie Parker

About This Artwork

This sand bas-relief honors jazz legend Charlie Parker through an abstract bird form sculpted directly into Salou Beach, Spain. Working within the tradition of ephemeral art, Arnaud Quercy shaped beach sand into a tribute that references Parker's famous nickname "Bird," translating the musician's improvisational energy into angular geometric planes. The work belongs to the Untamed Creations collection, which explores materials that resist traditional sculptural permanence.

The composition presents a stylized bird through geometric abstraction, with sharp angular forms creating wings and body that suggest dynamic motion. Warm earth tones dominate the surface entirely, ranging from deep dark brown in shadowed recesses to lighter tan and rosybrown in raised relief areas. The natural color variations of beach sand produce a cohesive palette that shifts subtly across the sculptural surface. Darker passages appear where carved forms create depth, while the overall texture maintains the characteristic granular quality of sand as medium.

At monumental scale measuring one hundred fifty by one hundred twenty centimeters, the work required viewers to engage with both its artistic content and environmental context. The beach support established a direct relationship between sculpture and coastal setting, emphasizing the ephemeral nature of the piece. Created during August 2022 as part of a series that also honored Thelonious Monk, this sculpture existed only briefly before tide, wind, and footsteps erased it. The impermanence formed part of the work's meaning: beauty most alive when it cannot last.

The work includes certificate of authenticity number 20221231-0048 and is cataloged as AQC0378 within Arnaud Quercy Creations. As documentation preserves what the tide dissolved, the piece demonstrates how ephemeral sculpture can achieve lasting presence through photographic record.