Mirama at Night

Its not that I set out to make series of Somerled storefronts at night, but here is another one. Its more borne of necessity since the sun goes down by about 5pm at this time of year, and if I want to make a painting after work its going to be a night painting. Add to that how tired I am sometimes and it leaves a short walk down Somerled and scenes of a rather pedestrian street. I was looking across the street at the Mirama Chinese food restaurant that has been there for over 60 years. Behind me was the Churos store that has alternating magenta, cyan and green lights which made the painting rather difficult to do, I was not entirely sure how the colours would turn out. The idea here was to focus more on the delivery person who was standing in the store waiting along with a couple chefs and the cashier. To play up the colour contrasts I put the bright yellow sign against a dark yellow brick background, and a purplish sky. Speaking of Chinese food, I read an article about monosodium glutamate (MSG) and learned that it is derived by distilling a sea algae, which makes it a natural product, and some of the bad publicity that it got back in the old days had an element of discrimination attached to it due its prevalent use in Chinese food. Modern research has not found a link between MSG and significant health problems according to the Mayo Clinic which is a reputable and unbiased source of information.

Mirama at Night, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, February 2024