facebook dialogue:  Feb 2nd 2013; posted here with further thoughts / ideas added onto because of the impermanence of stuff posted on facebook itself

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“the leaves are almost gone again – Carlton street”  2012   24″ x 12″    watercolour painted directly on absorbent ground on gessoed birch panel

Jacqueline Crawley “That looks like an intaglio print or a litho. Is is a watercolour? That image reminds me of the small parks in Paris [France].”

Micheal Zarowsky,

Hi Jacqueline,  ” know of the parks in Paris you speak of…floated back there instantly in my mind…now how to just get the body there…but yes it is a watercolour…there is a strong edge to a lot of my work, defining how i feel about the place i guess; this, a tiny fenced in front yard on north side of carlton between sherborne & parliament streets felt Parisian to me which is why i guess felt drawn to it….”

there have been back n forth comments about what i call the hard edge to some of my work which does yield a ‘woodcut’ feel, and which i guess i can trace back to my liking of /  for  the colour woodcuts that Walter Phillips gave to the world nearly a century ago. Being able to transcend the medium in so far as to what can be done with it, is an ongoing challenge for me, ever since i found there is a stigma against watercolours: (allergies to oil paints brought me to the watercolour medium early in my career but that did not mean i was going to be limited to using watercolour in the traditional sense)

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Rose window  2013   26″  x 12″   watercolour painted directly on absorbent ground on gessoed birch panel

this painting, of a slice of Rosedale in winter, like the carlton street painting has the hard edge, woodocut feel, which adds to its’ overall strength and simplicity. posted on facebook it inspired the following run on exchange:,

Megan Jones ” It’s gorgeous!”

Micheal Zarowsky “Something a little different for us / Just a slice of the city / thanks, Megan”

Etty Goldfarb “Very nice”

Micheal Zarowsky “Well then, if that’s how you feel, will kindly take your compliment and consider it as possibly start of a whole new series……”

Etty Goldfarb ” I say try it you never know what this could lead to”

Megan Jones “You know how much I absoutely love your winter scenes…trees/reflection of the sun. But this is something totally different. I hope you pursue it!”

Micheal Zarowsky “Thanks for that; need to look afresh at the city / this may prove the inspiration to do so”

Megan Jones “Are you selling this piece or keeping it?”

Micheal Zarowsky  “I cannot afford to keep my paintings….only the experience of painting it is left me……”

Micheal Zarowsky “There is another cityscape done earlier ‘leaves are almost gone again, carlton street’ 24” x 12” which i guess can be included in this / so in a sense by ‘backtracking’ to what has been done, the series may have begun before i was aware of it……”

Kat B. Nimble “Perfection.”

Micheal Zarowsky “You should see all the purple bruises from where i’z bin poked”