Watercolors by Mimi Torchia Boothby

Baudelia – portrait of my neighbor

admin — Tue, 15 May 2012 23:22:35 +0000

People that are into cars are always seeing cars that they like, people who are into dogs are always running into fun dogs. Well, what I love are faces, and when I saw this woman for the first time, I knew I had to paint her. She speaks very little English, being a native of Mexico, so we never really talked, and each time I would get my courage up to ask if I could paint her, she was gone; having returned to Mexico for the year. This happened three years in a row. Finally this year it all came together. As I sat in her son’s kitchen, drawing her for the first time, I watched as she became more comfortable with me staring at her and sketching her face. Her daughter in law told me that they would have to make a lot of copies of the painting so that her many children could each have a copy. I gave her her portrait today and showing great pleasure, she said “Muy Bien!” “Gracias!”
Life is good.

Made with Extra Love

admin — Mon, 14 May 2012 16:17:05 +0000

Kent Peterson, one of my favorite people in the blogging world AND one of my favorite people in the bicycling world asked me to illustrate one of his stories. He said this particular story reminded him of Donald and me. I was astonished until I read it; and cried all the way through it. I loved the story and was happy to do the painting. You can read the story here and tell Kent that Mimi sent you. He likes to get comments as well.

Brother crow announces brother wolf’s entrance into the clearing

admin — Sun, 13 May 2012 15:29:55 +0000

Wolves are one of the most important predators in North America. Overzealous farmers almost wiped them out, but then it was discovered that wolves keep elk and deer populations healthy by weeding out the sick and the injured ones and their presence keeps the population of coyotes at bay as well. Wolves are wonderful animals, great mothers, and have great family structures, with the whole family taking care of the alpha pair’s cubs. I hope we humans can figure out a way to share our world with brother wolf, and other great animals, all of which are losing more ground every day.

This painting is for sale $100.00 contact me if you would like to buy it. It measures 7.5″ x 12″

The night before the rest of her life

admin — Fri, 04 May 2012 16:04:12 +0000

This painting is from an old photo of one of my high school classmates. She is holding her favorite cat, named Dog. It is the night before her wedding to the man she made her life with. She looks so dreamy and romantic, and just a little insecure. The perfect bride.

This painting is not for sale.

Mimi’s Retirement party and Art Show

admin — Tue, 01 May 2012 15:24:07 +0000

Most people that retire from Boeing get a placque, a cake, some cards, an autographed airplane photo, and a lot of well wishers, but my retirement party was a little different.
As a long time sketcher, I managed to cover the walls of the conference room with sketches I had done of my coworkers. If you were in a meeting with me, you were fair game. I wanted to share with my coworkers the results of all the meetings I had attended. So we turned the party into a little art show. Since I never drew myself at the meetings, I included a few of my self portraits.

It was a wonderful send off, and a great beginning to a new career.

Zebra Dove

admin — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 13:31:35 +0000

One of the first things that I noticed visiting Hawaii were the birds. Everywhere we looked were beautiful colorful birds. In the morning when you awaken, you can hear them, they are on the beach, in the trees, waiting for you underfoot while you sit at a restaurant outside in the evening breeze.
The Zebra dove, much smaller than the doves and pigeons I have seen on the mainland, is one of the more ubiquitous species. I saw them everywhere. They have a wonderful voice and in Thailand and Indonesia, there are competitions as to which bird has the best call. Zebra doves are omnivorous, and will eat seeds, bugs, and crumbs around outside tables.
The reality of birds in Hawaii is this: most tourists never see a native bird. Almost all the birds that you might see on any given day are non-native, having been introduced to the island by people who thought they were pretty. Sadly there are only 4 native bird varieties that are still flourishing. At least this little dove is native to nearby places, perhaps they might have settled here eventually.

This little watercolor painting would fit perfectly in a 6″ x 6″ standard frame, and is for sale for $75.00.

Y is for yellow-eyed cat

admin — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 13:09:24 +0000

Thank you for reading my previous posts about endangered and threatened small wild cats (the letters B, F, I, K, L, M, O, P, and R). Together, with a little knowledge, we are taking the first steps to help them to continue to exist. But this time we’ll talk about a domestic cat.

What can really make a black cat striking are its eyes. In the right light, all you can see are eyes. They might be reflecting light, and then they can actually be spooky. But here’s a cat hugging a person. He has brilliant yellow eyes and hopes to be adopted by that person.
This is a painting I did for a teeshirt contest for Animal Talk Rescue. They catch, neuter and spay hundreds of feral cats every year and then find homes for them. Two of my beloved cats are from their rescue.

If you like this painting, please go to Animal Talk Rescue’s facebook page and vote for it! THANKS

This painting is SOLD!, all proceeds go to Animal Talk Rescue

Xenoclea – The postman butterfly

admin — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 10:11:53 +0000

The Heliconius Xenoclea is one of 39 varieties of Heliconius butterflies, popularly known as Longwings, and are found only in the neotropics. They are easily recognised by their distinctive patterns, elongated forewings and characteristic delicate fluttering flight. Most species produce a variety of different colour forms or morphs, which are often mimetic of unpalatable Danaines, or of other Heliconius species occuring in the same vicinity.

They get their nickname from how they learn home ranges, memorizing choice nectar and pollen sources, host plants and communal roosting sites. They are able to plan the most efficient route by which to visit all nectar / pollen sources in the vicinity by using simple calculations akin to what mathematicians call the “travelling salesman algorithm”.

This painting is for sale for $35.00 send me an email if you want to buy it.

Whimsy cats

admin — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 13:41:17 +0000

When I started painting watercolors I hit on a theme, “whimsy cats” and painted dozens of them. Based on my patient and wise cat, Enza, I painted them all from the rear view, looking immense from an ant’s eye view in the tall grass.

All of them are small, postcard sized or a little larger, and I practiced my techniques on them, learning gobs about watercolor, composition, and color theory. I sold some of them, and gave a lot of them away to charity auctions. Here is one of the very few I have left that I painted in 2008. This painting is SOLD. It comes matted ready to be slid into an 8″ x 10″ frame.

V is for Vermillion Valentine

admin — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 13:21:52 +0000

I can remember the first time I was given a cheap set of pastels, one of the colors was Vermillion. My favorite color, it sent me in rhapsodies to swish it around on my paper. This love affair with the hues between orange and red continues with me to this day. It surprises me how infrequently I paint with this color; but I went all out for this painting.
This is a combination of two Valentines, the parrot tulips my husband gave me, and the Valentine painting (demurely hiding behind the flowers) that I made for him.

Happy V day, not quite St. V’s day, but why not!

What’s the best Valentine you ever gave or got?

This painting, measuring 10″ x 14″ is for sale, $175.00 this includes postage!