Size: 42 x 59.4 cm
Technique: Gouache painting on Clairefontaine paper


Description:
In Tokyo Rainy Night, Michelle Cox captures the cinematic pulse of an urban moment suspended between light and rain. Working in gouache, the artist exploits the medium’s velvety opacity to conjure a dense, atmospheric scene that feels both immediate and dreamlike. Her brushwork—expressive, experimental, and guided by emotion—translates the sensory complexity of a nocturnal city into painterly rhythm.
Inspired by a photograph from Liam Wong, celebrated for his neon-lit visions of Tokyo, Cox transforms a documentary image into a meditation on perception and transience. From a narrow alley lined with bicycles, the viewer glimpses a young woman passing a glowing storefront, her folded umbrella evoking the recent rainfall. The wet pavement, alive with reflections, becomes a stage for light itself.
The work’s composition recalls the tension and framing of a film still: poised between motion and stillness, narrative and abstraction. In Tokyo Rainy Night, Cox invites the viewer not merely to observe, but to feel illuminated—momentarily touched by the same light that animates her painted world.