Paint Party Friday: Week 18, Year 2 Check In Featured Artist: Mimi Torchia Boothby

image courtesy of Mimi Torchia Boothby

Welcome to Week 18 of Paint Party Friday (Year 2) and to the next edition of our Featured Artist Series! (Would you like to be a PPF Featured Artist? Please click here for details!) This week's featured artist works wonders with watercolors. Please welcome Mimi Torchia Boothby!

1) Please tell us a bit about your personal history with painting. (When did you start painting? How has your painting evolved since you first started?) I have been drawing and sketching for most of my life, but in 2006 I picked up a paintbrush at the Daniel Smith Art supply store near my house. There was a demo there with their paints, brushes, and paper, so all you had to do was dip the brush in. I filled the brush with paint and swirled it around on the paper. That was all it took. I went home and dug out old supplies and started painting and haven’t stopped yet. I learned technique slowly and discovered that better brushes and paper make all the difference in the world with watercolor. Those two things made me hate watercolor and give up before. You need to use good materials, it’s a must.

2) What are your favorite techniques, media, and tools to use in creating your paintings? My favorite medium is watercolor of course. I have about 5 brushes that I cannot live without. Those are my favorite tools. I need a HB pencil, lots of erasers, and a number 2 pencil as well. And my Daniel Smith Paints! I do use about 3 colors from Windsor Newton as well. They are: raw umber, cobalt turquoise, and raw sienna. Daniel Smith has colors with those names, but they are different.

image courtesy of Mimi Torchia Boothby

3) What is your favorite thing to paint? Why? I love painting portraits, but I find that painting the faces of cats and dogs is equally fun. I am not sure what it is about portraits that is so pleasurable. I end up studying the person (or pet) and learn things about them that maybe their family has never noticed. It’s a very intimate connection. I have painted deceased family members and it’s just like having a visit!

image courtesy of Mimi Torchia Boothby

4) What is your proudest painting moment and/or greatest painting achievement so far? In 2008, Barack Obama became president. I was extremely excited about him, to me he represented change and hope for this country to finally prove itself to not be so racist, so I painted his portrait soon after the election. I sold dozens of prints of that painting, and then the following May, I was featured on the front page of the Sunday New York Times for doing that very painting. (You can read about it here.)

Another really awesome experience I had was my recent retirement party at work. We hung up all the sketches (doodles done while I sat in meetings) I’d done of my coworkers over the years. There were over 70 separate pages, each usually with several sketches on the page. After the party, my coworkers all came around and picked their favorites and took them home.

5) What's next in your painting future? Now that I am retired, I hope to paint portraits of a few more of my neighbors and enter more competitions. I have not had much time to focus on the marketing aspect of my work up until now. I do sell paintings right off my blog and also from facebook. I have an account at Fine Arts America, but it doesn’t perform as well as facebook does.

Thank you, Mimi - We wish you lots of luck in future competitions!  To learn even more about Mimi and see more of her art, please visit her at:

http://mimitabby.com/blog

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Mimi-Torchia-Boothby-watercolor-artist/141392647102

http://fineartamerica.com/shop/mimi-boothby.html

NOW IT'S YOUR TURN...
WE WANT YOU TO SUBMIT YOUR STORY!

**Would you like to be a PPF Featured Artist? Click here for details!**

We just learned that a few PPF Featured Artist submissions got lost in our Spam filters.  :(  If you have sent a submission and we haven't yet contacted you (especially if you sent it month's ago!), please let us know and please resubmit. Thank you! We are terribly sorry if that has happened to you and will be checking regularly now to see what else gmail has misunderinterpreted...

So great to see so many of you painting such gorgeous pieces despite the weather and vacation season... Now, here is our check-in for this week's party:

As always, please make sure to use your post URL address NOT your blog home page URL address as there are many late visitors who get confused as to which post is for PPF when they arrive (after Friday) at your website. If you are unfamiliar with Mr. Linky, an explanation of how this tool works can be found on Week 1 and Week 2 Check-Ins.

Hope you have a great week!