Variational Quantum Brushes
This is an incremental outreach contribution for artists and researchers interested in quantum computing applications in art.
The paper tackles the problem of generating artistic effects by introducing two quantum brushes based on variational quantum algorithms, resulting in open-source software that merges art or evolves colors using quantum methods.
Quantum brushes are computational arts software introduced by Ferreira et al (2025) that leverage quantum behavior to generate novel artistic effects. In this outreach paper, we introduce the mathematical framework and describe the implementation of two quantum brushes based on variational quantum algorithms, Steerable and Chemical. While Steerable uses quantum geometric control theory to merge two works of art, Chemical mimics variational eigensolvers for estimating molecular ground energies to evolve colors on an underlying canvas. The implementation of both brushes is available open-source at https://github.com/moth-quantum/QuantumBrush and is fully compatible with the original quantum brushes.