Mimi Torchia Boothby

This season I am finally able to feel and enjoy the world around me again, and particularly in the autumn, I find myself surrounded by a feast of the senses. Walking on the Beacon Avenue green belt this time of year is a symphony of color. While autumn is almost over, its last days are filled with the brightest of the reds, oranges and yellows. The rain magnifies it all to a wonderful glow and feeds the green grass so that it contrasts the warm tones of the leaves and their brilliance. I could not help but notice how even this rusty old pick up truck had to join the party. And thus, a new painting was made.

I am participating in a 5 day workshop focusing on faces, called Faces101 by Carla Sonheim. For this assignment, we were told to draw from photos of people that we know very well and to use colored pencils, which cannot be erased. Quite the challenge for an artist. I liked the last one I did so much that I put more than the allotted 5 minutes into it and this was the result. Here is my grandmother, Lucy Fressola. She was born in Puglia in 1910 and came to the USA on a boat when she was just 9 years old. She was such an important person in our family because of her intelligence, her drive, and her ambition, and her preservation of the culture that she was raised in. I have tried to emulate her all my life. I know she was proud of me too.

While visiting this fox terrier’s family, I had chance to observe her when her human went into the kitchen. She posed, erect, as if she was ready to leap the moment she heard the right enticing sound. I was inspired by her posture and knew I had to paint her.
Not for sale.