C minor - Research on Harmony - Variation 2

Three notes. C1, C2, G4 — two roots and one fifth. That is all. C minor at its most minimal: no third at all, just the root twice and the fifth above. Without Eb, the blue-violet is absent. The palette holds only red-toward-black (the roots) and red-orange (G4 at the crest).

The bell arch rises from C1 (black) through C2 (dark red) to G4 (red-orange), then returns. Almost entirely dark — 28% shadows, 68% midtones, only 4% highlights. The mid-range G4 offers warm red-orange at the top, but the painting's weight is in the lower registers.

This is C minor without its characteristic minor quality — no Eb, no blue-violet. The absence of the third creates an ambiguous, open sonority, the chord suspended between minor and major, its color a simple gradient from black-red roots to red-orange apex. The sparest and most austere study in the series.