Mimi Torchia Boothby

Category: portrait

  • Portrait #10 – The fisherman’s wife

    One of my favorite authors is Giovanni Verga, who was born in 1860 and died in 1922. He lived in Sicily, in the city of Catania. I was able to visit his house while I was there a few years ago. He wrote about the tragedy and the beauty of the poor working class that…

  • Jump like a Comet!

    I had to wait to post this because the painting was a surprise and a Christmas present for my nephew’s wonderful wife. It’s the first formal horse portrait I have ever done and it was very exciting to pull it off. This is Comet, who is no longer a teenager, but he has been extremely…

  • His sainted wife – self portrait #8

    Having explored the faces of many earthly personalities, I decided that I must go the other direction. I wanted to paint a saint and give her my face. So I did. First I had to describe serenity, and then I had to have the model looking up to the sky. Would it work? Could it…

  • Miss Viola Snodgrass, suffragette and schoolmarm, portrait #7

    Today’s model was Miss Viola Snodgrass. She arrived at my house on her shining clean bicycle, wearing a long ample skirt and a white blouse with fabric-covered buttons. Once I had her seated, she did not move a muscle, but while we were talking she commented that this was foolishness, I could have used a…

  • The Old Gypsy Woman – self portrait #6

    Today my model humored me, she put on huge hoop earrings, hoping to fulfill the prophecy of her grandmother Maddalena, uttered 50 years ago. “You look like a gypsy!” As a gypsy, she told me, in accented English, that maybe it looks like her life is good, all she has to do is read palms…