Mimi Torchia Boothby

Artists are political. I, for one, cannot really paint someone I don’t want to paint. But sometimes, there is a face in the news and I can’t NOT paint him. When I first heard about George, I looked at his face, he looked tall and strong and brave. Then I read a biography, really, an obituary, and his friend quoted him as saying “I want to touch the world” when he was young and idealistic. How amazing and poignant it is, that he DID touch the world, but at such a terrible cost. Black lives matter, Black men matter. Black women matter. Black children matter. Yes, all of the other lives matter too, but the carnage in our country is totally skewed and black men are dying again and again, in numbers that are chilling. I love to use watercolor to paint faces, and that is what I did here.
This painting is already sold, but you can still buy prints and my profits will go to #blacklivesmatter.

Today was my last portrait session in Tallahassee, as next Monday my cats and I will be flying back to Seattle. We watched expectantly as different possible portrait models walked through our room, after Tom told us our model wasn’t coming. And then Florence walked in. She was diminutive and soft spoken. She couldn’t see very well, and it was okay with her that we asked her to remove her glasses. She’d never sat as a model before, but was clearly an over achiever, no model we’d ever had held the pose as long as she did. We had to insist she take breaks. Her face was like a rhapsody. Sometimes she smiled, she looked like she was in a rapture, other times, the lines changed, her lips thinned, and she looked sad. I wish I could get her to talk. I knew she had stories to tell.

For my last daily face, I decided to go back to the historical, where I started. I had hoped to work on making more pretty faces, but instead, life threw me a real curve ball and I didn’t have time or energy to do extras, and had to rely on my family for most of the modeling, total realism.
This has been a fun exercise,but I think that the painting a day exercise was more fun. More than once I did not paint something because I had to do a face instead.
Thanks everyone who followed me down this road this month, it has been an adventure!

I know, I know, I’m supposed to be painting faces, but if I didn’t show this guy on a bicycle, you wouldn’t know who he is. Major Taylor was one of the best cyclists that ever lived. He was born in 1878 and died in 1932. He broke numerous world records and broke the color barrier to even be able to compete in the first place. Today there are numerous organizations using his name that promote cycling as a sport to underprivileged and children of color. And lest you think the color barrier is gone, it is not. It’s still harder for black cyclists to get anywhere in the sport.

This painting is for sale, at the amazing low price of $50.00. It measures 6″ x 6″

As much as I love a good face, I love a good story too. John Hurt was discovered in 1928 and made a few recordings. He was much appreciated, but the depression struck, and he was forgotten for 36 years. He worked as field hand, picking cotton or corn, and working cattle. It wasn’t until 1963 that the world found him again. For the last 3 years of his life, he enjoyed a measure of fame including a featured spot at the Newport Blues festival.
My husband introduced his wonderful earthy music to our family in the early 1980’s, good music to raise children on. This is being reposted from 2012, as this painting is still available.

This is a hand-painted watercolor, 8.5″ x 11″ and it is for sale for $175.00.
If you’d like to buy it, use the paypal button below or contact me. All money received goes directly to endangered species conservation.