Mimi Torchia Boothby

Seattle View

I stepped out of the Seattle Art Museum the other day and noticed people had their cellphones out, and were snapping photos. I turned to look and could see the brilliant clarity of cloudlessness on the horizon behind the Smith Tower. I pulled out my sketch book to help me keep this view in my…

December 5, 2012

RAMROD – 2009

RAMROD stands for Ride Around Mount Rainier in one day. It is the Pacific Northwest’s premiere one-day hardcore cycling event. It combines the incomparable scenery of Mount Rainier National Park with a challenging course featuring 10,000 feet of climbing over 152 miles. It is THE ride to finish, it gives you bragging rights forever. My…

December 2, 2012

Hey Mom! – portrait commission – take one.

Sometimes I paint a face three or four times before the final portrait is done. The young lady’s mother sent me many photos and this is the image I painted from the one I liked the best. It is bright and interesting, and fun too. They came to my house for an actual sitting, so…

November 10, 2012

Inexorable force of nature – composition crash course workshop

I attended a nice workshop today taught by Anne Lewis called “Crash Course In Composition” at the Gage school in Seattle. We started out cutting out black construction paper circles, we were armed with scissors, x-acto knives and glue. We felt like we were in kindergarten again, it was freeing and pleasant. We did a…

October 27, 2012

Out for a walk

All over Italy, you can find them. Retired gentleman out for their walk “Passeggiata” it is called. This is one thing that Italian culture espouses that our does not. People go on walks. Old and young, all over Italy, out for passeggiata. In some places, it is more prevalent than others; like Cefalu’ and Pozzuoli;…

October 25, 2012