Watercolors by Mimi Torchia Boothby » acquarello

Waiting for that woman

mimitorchia — Sun, 28 Aug 2011 01:51:57 +0000

He’s waited for what seems like his whole life for her. He just knows if they were together, it would be magic, paradise. They would sing, dance, have beautiful children, they’d own a beautiful car and a big house. But she’s not ready to settle down with him. So he just keeps waiting.

Niimi Dental Clinic – Old Kyoto

admin — Sat, 09 Apr 2011 19:08:37 +0000

I enjoyed the first google maps “virtual plein aire” painting I did so much that I decided to do another one. This time, I searched a long time to try and find an older neighborhood. Most of Japan is extremely modern, clean lines, grey square framed homes over perfect streets, after a while, I am disappointed to say, one city looked a lot like another. Except for Kyoto. Kyoto has preserved some of the older neighborhoods, narrow winding streets with open fruit stands and lots of interesting stuff to see. There are still standing today, lots of buildings with wood fronts, odd shapes and lots of bamboo screens. On this street I found a dental clinic. This unusual clinic building had a rounded roof and a flying saucer looking lookout on the top; I decided I would paint THIS street because if I was walking down that street, I would be captivated by the scene. This 14 x20 inch watercolor painting is for sale at auction on the Daily Paint Works website, all proceeds go to Japan relief. I hope you like it.

Stella Canfield’s Workshop

admin — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 13:58:34 +0000

This past weekend I had the opportunity to attend a painting workshop put on by Stella Canfield. Stella’s vibrant use of color and motion intrigued me and after attending one of her demonstrations I decided I needed to go to her workshop.
That morning it was raining out and I spied three women walking along Beacon Avenue’s wonderful green median all carrying umbrellas, so I rolled down my window and took a picture of them with my cell phone. They were all wondering what the heck I was doing, so I turned around and came back and told them how cute they all looked, they were the perfect Seattle scene. And I took another photo.

Armed with this photo and many others that I have taken during my travels over the years, I loaded my car with art supplies and not enough food and drove off to Daniel Smith, my absolute favorite Art Supply store, which happens to be 4 miles from my house.
The class was friendly, many of the attendees had taken a workshop from Stella before. She talked a lot about the elements of design (light, composition, and 5 other elements) and her method for producing a nice painting. Then she gave us a demonstration, she painted a boat in some water. I was not impressed with her reference photo, I would never have chosen it for a subject, but by the time she was done, (which didn’t take very long) she had a beautiful luminous painting of a boat on water..
She gave us an exercise, just paint. Just put colors down on paper. Don’t think about it. The results are here:

As I mentioned earlier, I have a treasure trove of photos that I have taken in the last few years, many of which I had hoped I could turn into a painting. But they are too scary for me, so I have never attempted to paint them yet. I took a couple of those along, and this street scene from Napoli, Italia is the first one I tried to paint at the workshop.

Stella is a great coach, she comes in and gives you great suggestions for how a painting can be improved. I would recommend her class to anyone interested in watercolors. She shares my opinion that anything you do to the paper is fair game, including scraping, scratching and scrubbing. As long as there is paper left, it counts. All of the paintings displayed here are very large for me, 15″ x 22″

Valentine’s Day

admin — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 00:56:49 +0000

As a small child, I loved making valentines. We were given paper lace doilies, construction paper and glue. We made the very most beautiful valentines that we could, intricate and pleasingly bright. Lucky for me, I had parents, because they were really the only appreciative recipients of my childhood valentines. But this one is for you, my readers.
I really like St Valentine’s day not just because of the chocolate, but because it is the one day of the year dedicated to love. Of course the entire candy and flower industry have done their best to capitalize on this holiday, like all others, but they really can’t take away the essence of the thing. With some holidays, the original message is all but lost. Valentine’s day is still just a day for expressions of love, something sorely needed these days. I hope you like my valentine!

Autumn Crows

admin — Sat, 13 Nov 2010 18:09:23 +0000

During this time of year, a bike ride can be a kaleidoscope of incredibly beautiful visions. Even though this Autumn did not have the fire and brilliance of the last, there are places where the colors fill the eyes with glowing embers. On the bike, these visual delights force you to slow down just to see, just to see.

We were going down a tree lined street in the central district of Seattle last Sunday when I saw these crows, happily feasting on something hidden under the fallen leaves.

This painting and a companion piece like it are both available. This one measures 7″ X 10″ and is for sale $100.00 and the smaller one is painted on a square of watercolor paper, 6″ x 6″ and it is priced at $45.00

La Toscana

admin — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 03:03:30 +0000

On our drive back to Podenzano from Napoli, Elena and Enzo decided to take me to two towns in Tuscany; Montalcino and Siena. Montalcino is famous for their wine, particularly for their Brunello. Being a teetotaler myself, I had never heard of Brunello, but I looked forward to Elena and Enzo trying the degustazione (or tasting) of 3 varieties of this wine. The town of Montalcino was ancient, small, and pretty. But the first thing we noticed was that we were surrounded by tourists. From every direction we heard American voices and tour groups.
Some of the tour groups were on bicycles. We watched as frightened cyclists rolled down the slippery wet pavement gripping their brakes tightly. It occurred to me that this was the first time I had been in a touristy place since I’d arrived. We went to a nice restaurant and had dinner and the wine tasting, surrounded again by American tourists. The Brunello wines that Elena and Enzo sampled each smelled very different. But the two I liked the smell of were the two they purchased. The nose knows, after all.

Our next stop was Siena, a famous town all over the world for their twice annual Palio, or horse race. There is one horse from every neighborhood in the city, and the fantino (jockey) must ride his horse bareback. If he falls off, it doesn’t matter; if his horse comes in first, his neighborhood still wins. As we stood in the square, someone said 10,000 people stand there during the race. I was glad I was there on a rainy day in October.
The two paintings on this page were done in my travel journal.

Le Castagne – Chestnuts

admin — Sat, 09 Oct 2010 22:03:24 +0000

In Calabria, once upon a time before there were tomatoes (there was a time like this!) and before there was inexpensive pasta, people subsisted on Chestnuts – there was little else so readily available to stave off starvation in the wintertime. They boiled them with other vegetables, they dried them and ground them up for flour to make a heavy kind of bread, and they slowly roasted them in stone ovens for a delicious aromatic snack. The wood as well was very important, used for many purposes, from furniture to firewood.
An elaborate system of gathering, cleaning and drying these nuts developed, with some parts of the process assigned to men, and others to women and children. If you’ve ever been to Calabria in the late summer or early autumn, you have seen these large trees pregnant with big prickly yellowish green spherical husks, nasty to touch, with one to four chestnuts inside. They usually fall in mid October, almost exactly the same time every year. The last two times I visited, I was just a little too early to be able to participate in the harvest. This time, on the day before I left Calabria, my cousin presented me with a pound or so of the very first chestnuts of the season.
Even though people no longer subsist on Chestnuts, they are still a relatively important crop. They are now used more for treats than subsistence, and are also given to pigs to fatten them up. I have one cousin whose job it is to study the health of the Castagno (Chestnut tree) and another of my cousins, Teresa Riccio, has actually written a book about the historical and sociological significance of this tree Il castagno nella tradizione di una Comunità Presilana: Sersale. And I just discovered that they are very fun to paint!

Cornish, Maine – plein aire

admin — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 20:52:24 +0000

My husband and I went to Maine last week to attend the Boothby family’s 100th reunion. We stayed in Cornish, Maine, a tiny township in what they call southern Maine. The reunion was in the next town over, called Limington.
To keep the character of Cornish Township authentic, they have some zoning laws that prevent new-style buildings
from being built in the center of town. The center of town was only about 3 blocks long so there was a lot of room to build anything else out further down the road, including hardware stores and a restaurant called “Phat Boys”. (and yes, they were!)

We were particularly impressed with this antique store, the loving detail that showed in the way it was constructed, finished and then cared for. We bought a Pennsylvania Barn Star there, you can just barely see them on each side of the entrance of the building.

We stayed at a place called the Cornish Inn. It’s the building on the right with the red roof. In the center house, I saw a tiny elderly lady come out and check her mail. I loved her pink door which nicely offset the copper (green) roof and white house. I did not finish this little painting because it began to rain. A “rare” Summer Northeaster blew in, and eventually it poured.
As for the Boothbys, one of the first houses built in the are belonged to a Boothby but it burned down many years ago. The street is still named Boothby road.
Painting “Plein Aire” means I was outside with my little pad sketching and painting.

What is a MimiTabby?

admin — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 15:26:18 +0000

Once upon a time a little girl was born who loved cats. She loved not only cats, but stories about cats and books about cats. She also started drawing cats when she was 3 years old.

As soon as she was able, she made sure that cats were always in her life and of course she learned to take care of them. Her best friend in the world was a cat for most of her childhood. Today, she’s fostered cats, rescued cats and supported cat rescue associations, often by donations of paintings of cats. She even managed to raise two wild rambunctious sons with perfect cat taming and handling skills. I know, enough about cats. But I figured someone might want to know what the story was behind the name Mimitabby.

And onto tabbies. Tabbies are cats with stripes or spots, one of the most common markings found on felis domesticus. While I’m at it, there is also a word in Italian that describes exactly a dark tabby cat. That word is soriano. I’ll bet you’re glad you know that now.

Models for these paintings include Aggie, Barbie, Nutmeg and Enza (oh, and Mimi). Featured here either in personality or actual portraits are many of the cats that I had the pleasure of sharing my life with in the past. While I was painting these cats I had several of them posing for me, purring at me, watching me, and letting me know it was time to feed them. Special thanks to Arabella for giving me the idea for this painting.

The Lady in Green

admin — Sat, 14 Aug 2010 01:36:11 +0000

She’s back, yes, I had to paint the lady in green again. Why? I am not sure I can answer that. Why is one woman at a party sad and conflicted? Was someone cruel to her? Was she threatened? Will she be in trouble when she gets home? What is clouding the brow of this lovely young face? Did she ever tell anyone? The mystery of this woman’s face really haunts me. Somehow, I feel like I am getting closer to expressing her pain and sharing it with you. This time I gave her hair a more modern appearance. I hope no one minds.