Watercolors by Mimi Torchia Boothby » watercolours

The Cookie Lady

admin — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 13:33:41 +0000

With so much going wrong these days in the world, the state, the city, a small thing going right is our local Georgetown Farmer’s Market. It is in its infancy, its very first season, and lots of new merchants and farmers are setting up their stalls and trying their luck at open market each Saturday from 10 until 3. I have been delighted with some of the new vendors, we had Indian food featuring fresh Naan, Argentinian Empanadas, Vegan chocolate cake, a northern Italian selling pasta made from chestnuts, a southern Italian selling eggplant casserole, and lots of organic farms selling gorgeous fruits and vegetables. Some of them seem to have already given up on our small market, I haven’t seen them come back after the first few Saturdays. So it seems I have a huge emotional investment in this market succeeding. This past Saturday, there was a cookie seller. And the woman who ran the booth called herself “The Cookie Lady.” There she was, the kind of woman who clearly could do anything if she wanted, surrounded by all kinds of wonderful concoctions – her creations. We asked for samples. Each tidbit we sampled we ended up buying a batch. Her stuff was good. She was sassy and confident. We’ll be back! (I hope she comes back too) This is a watercolor on 9 x12″ arches paper and it is for sale. Photo reference by Donald Boothby.

By the big barn

admin — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 21:06:21 +0000

From the number of dilapidated huge barns that we see on our bike rides, western Washington state used to be a big dairy producer. Every one of these barns shows pride, industry and independence to me. Some of them are unique.
This is another painting based on my husband’s collection of photographs. We rode by this barn on our tandem and had to stop to gaze at it. I confess that it is actually more decrepit in person than it appears here.

A log cabin past its prime

admin — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 14:05:44 +0000

Bicycling is one of our hobbies, we cover a lot of miles on country roads at a leisurely pace. Unlike traveling in a car, we are exposed to the elements, the smells and the sights that you might miss at high speed. On a bike it is easy to stop to pick some flowers, or feed grass to a friendly horse. Near Winthrop, Washington, we found this cabin in a field. It was important to take a photo of it, because we knew that it would eventually collapse. Many of the barns and buildings that my husband has captured with his camera are now gone. The reference for this one was one of his photos.

Meet one of my neighbors

admin — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 03:39:00 +0000

I live in South East Seattle, and we are understandably very proud of the goodness in our neighborhood.
I’ve recently gone on a couple of neighborhood tours, and discovered that right down the street from my house a little shop where they do alterations and clothing repairs called New Holly Gift Shop & Alterations. I’d been past it hundreds of times but never looked inside. Well, the shop was on the tour, and they interviewed the seamstress, whose name is Phuong. She came out, all smiles, I was certain that she’d be shy, but she was not. When asked why she liked her job; her quick response was “I like my job because I get great satisfaction out of seeing how pleased people are when they see my work.” We’ve been back to that store twice now, she does great work!

Giuseppina – incredible lady

mimitorchia — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 14:47:38 +0000

When my grandmother, Lucy Melino Fressola died, she left each of her descendants; children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren some money. With part of mine, I took my entire family to Italy; my husband, my two young adult sons, and I. We decided that it was about time to go visit my grandmother’s home town, Sant’Agata di Puglia, one of many picturesque hilltop towns in Southern Italy.

There was one little lady who still lived there that remembered my grandmother, her name was Giuseppina. She was short and spry with twinkly eyes. She welcomed us to her town with smiles and told us how she was the oldest of 8 children and how they had absolutely nothing. She was not able to go to school because she had to work instead and never learned to read. She eventually married my grandmother’s cousin, Saverio Fabbiano. They bought a house with the sweat off their backs and raised their children in this pristine little village. She radiated joy as she reminisced my grandmother’s last visit. It seems that the day my grandmother arrived, Giuseppina’s daughter had a baby. I later met that baby, a woman close to my age.

There was nowhere to park our car near her home or near our hotel, so this 80 something year old woman led us around on foot, we had to work to keep up with her. Every one of us has a story about our time in Sant’Agata di Puglia, but each of us remembers this smiling old woman who shared her town with us.

A tiny glimpse of the woods

admin — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 01:16:13 +0000

On Monday last, we had a holiday. My husband and I decided to hike to Annette Lake and back, a 7.5 mile hike. Neither of us has done any hiking for years but although it was a rather ambitious outing, we had a great time. I found it rather amusing that while we were walking through the mists, the rest of the USA was roasting. One of the more beautiful vistas I saw on this hike was the misty shadows of distant trees covered by the mid day fog shrouding part of the mountain. This painting measures 2.5″ x 3.5″.

The Spirit of the Gulf Challenge

admin — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 00:34:45 +0000

To raise consciousness about the plight of the Gulf of Mexico, Suzanne McDermott issued challenges to some artists to follow the Spirit of the Gulf Challenge. I received the challenge through fellow artist and blogger Sue Pownall at Art of a Nomad, when she challenged every reader of their blogs to participate. Whilst we cannot change the physical damage which has occurred, this challenge may raise awareness. After all we live on one planet and it’s one sea.

THE SPIRIT OF THE GULF CHALLENGE:

Find a photo or other resource depicting some living aspect of the Gulf of Mexico before the oil disaster or
Tap into your spirit and use your imagination
Make a drawing, painting or other piece of creative work with love and gratitude for the beautiful life of whatever you’re depicting.
Post what you make on your website, include a link to the original post: Spirit of the Gulf Challenge (or the facebook group — (Spirit of the Gulf facebook group. ) and put the icon below in your sidebar with a link to the original post (or the facebook group). Send Suzanne a link to your post and she will add the link to bottom of her post.

Words cannot express the anguish I feel about the animals who are perishing because of human folly and arrogance. I wanted to paint little tiny sea creatures but the pelican is more iconic.

Baby Lovebirds

mimitorchia — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 20:39:21 +0000

This painting is 7″ x 10″ . The subjects are baby lovebirds. You can barely see their tiny wings. They are adorable!

A face at the Othello Park International Festival

mimitorchia — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 23:46:56 +0000

Your roving painter found a great face to paint last weekend. Assisted by her energetic partner, Artist Seanna Jordan, Mimi was able to snap a few photos of this man while he wondered what the heck we were making such a fuss about. He’ll never know!

Elliott Bay View

admin — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 04:28:00 +0000

This painting is on a full sheet of Indian Village handmade paper. The surface is a bit rough and sometimes unpredictable. I had never painted a painting of this size before 22″ x 34″ and thought it was high time to try it. I have actually had the paper sitting out, ready to be painted upon for a few months now, but it wasn’t until this week that I summoned up the courage to do it.
I chose this harbor scene, because I would have to do some washes, and they can be frustrating on a small piece of paper and I thought it would be luxurious to do on a full sheet. To my surprise, at first the paper was water-repellent! The paint beaded up and rolled into my lap. That was quickly overcome, and my problems became the normal ones, controlling my hand, the paint, and this unpredictable paper. Believe it or not, this painting is the study for a smaller one, which you will see here soon. Try to find the man in the painting.

I just finished the second attempt at this view, this time in a much smaller 12×16 format