Still freshly smitten from visiting Maine with the Farnsworth Museum full of Andrew Wyeth’s sketches and paintings, and the Olson house, where he painted over 300 paintings, I decided I should take some of Andy’s unspoken advice and study my subjects a little more. For some reason I wanted to study crows.
In real life, the green painting is more yellow —- The blue painting is done on blue paper
It appears that the yellow background of the last painting has been muted by my scanner..
Crows are ubiquitous wildlife in Seattle. They are noisy, they are devious, smart, and really wild. They are iconic. The Inuit tribe believed that it was crow who brought the daylight back to them after the long dark winter.
But I digress. I wanted to use the crow to enhance the mood of my paintings, so study them I did. I tried to entice them to approach me with offerings of food. Nothing doing. They waited until I walked away, then they’d strafe the ground, pick up all the food faster than I could turn around and take two steps towards them! As you can see, I did benefit from their presence however. Although each of these paintings needs a home, they are also studies for perhaps some more profound painting that I have not yet realized.
Stay tuned, I’m going to have a contest..
Of course you know I always like to hear from you so feel free to comment. Which of these paintings is your favorite?
Come join us for the 5th 2010 Renton Art and Antique Walk on Saturday, August 28 from 11:00am to 6:00pm. Over 70 artists will take part in this year’s event along S. 3rd Street in Downtown Renton. In addition to artist, we will have an animal petting area and a robotics display. For more details about Arts Unlimited or the Art Walk, please visit our information booth on the corner of S. 3rd and Burnett Ave S.
Your friend, artist Mimi Torchia Boothby will be showing some of her paintings right in front of the Renton Coin Shop at 225 Wells Avenue South right in downtown Renton.
She will be there surrounded by her paintings and probably actually painting rain or shine. Right next door will
be Seana Jordan who does animal portraits in acrylic using bold & beautiful colors. So hop into your car or bicycle and come on down and see us.
We’re looking forward to seeing you.
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.
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.
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.