Friday, July 13, 2012

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!

44 comments:

  1. Mimi is uber-talented!
    Her watercolors are beautiful!
    Thank you for featuring her and hosting Paint Party Friday!

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  2. Your work is amazing Mimi. Watercolor isnt easy. Good to know its easier with better Brushes and Paper. Great interview. Happy PPF.

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  3. Wow, Mimi is definitely tops in her work. Great job and congrats Mimi on the write-up in the NY Times and your retirement. Wish you all the luck in the world. Happy PPF everyone. Have a great weekend.

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  4. Great learning more about you Mimi!
    Stay inspired!

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  5. Mimi, your work is wonderful. Amazing portraits!

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  6. Mimi, you are amazing. I love your work. Your story is much like mine, only mine is with cloth dolls. I find that have the best notions/supplies help so much not only getting the task done, but the finished product is better. I too retired into it. Congrats. Blessings, Janet.

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  7. Oh My Lucky number 13 this time !
    Happy to meet you Mimi ! your watercolors are very nice. I also have a Fine art America page but I haven't sold much from it yet. Although I have ordered and am very happy with the quality of the prints through them.

    -KAT lucky # 13

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  8. Oh wow! Here portraits are masterly! I'm terrible at watercolor but maybe it's because I tend to buy cheap brushes and paints! Ha ha ha! patsy

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    1. You ought to treat yourself to just one good brush and one full sheet of good paper. Spend $25.00 just for fun.


      Mimi Torchia Boothby Watercolors

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  9. Your portraits are amazing. Bravo on the recognition your Obama portrait got! It deserved it all. HAPPY PPF!

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  10. Amazing work, and wonderful to get recognition for the Obama painting.
    This is my correct link today, Mr Linky was a bit quick and published the wrong link today by entry 19! Valerie

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  11. Love that her painting of Obama was features in the New York Times! It needed to be, it's amazing. I admire anyone that can do portraits.
    Catherine Denton

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  12. Nice interview and beautiful paintings Mimi, been to your FB page and liked it. Happy PPF to all of you.

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  13. Incredible! Your work and story are both wonderful and inspiring.

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  14. Wonderful spotlight on Mimi...and wow..such gorgeous paintings/portraits...fantastic work..shine on!
    Victoria

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  15. Mimi looks a lovely lady and she is a fab artist. Great interview, Annette x

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  16. Amazing Art Mimi! Looking forward to more of your masterpieces!

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  17. Wonderful portraits! Congratulations on the success already accomplished and may you continue to win awards.

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  18. wonderful to learn more about talented Mimi! Such lovely work.

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  19. Had some good studio time this week - this fun froggy was one of my projects! I so admire people who can paint fabulous portraits - these are lovely works!

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  20. Wow!! Nice to meet you Mimi!! Your work is amazing!! Beautiful portraits!

    Happy PPF everyone!

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  21. Amazing portraits! And wow, congratulations on being featured on the front page of the Sunday New York Times.

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  22. Although it was a pretty heady feeling to walk into a restaurant one Sunday morning and see MY painting on the front page of the New York Times they were selling, It's also really important and uplifting to be featured here, among my peers. I consider this to be quite an honor and I thank you all for your kind words.


    Mimi Torchia Boothby Watercolors

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  23. wow - thanks for the great post about Mimi! I have known Mimi's work from before I even knew to come to PPF and Sunday Sketches, etc, through another forum. I loved reading about her life, and Obama and all of it.

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  24. Wow... excellent work! Keep it up and thanks for sharing it with us!!!
    Renee
    xoxo

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  25. What a wonderful insight. It's so true about the quality of the materials (unfortunately for our pockets!!).

    Great story about the Obama painting. Wow, I never knew that about you!

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  26. I love, love, love Mimi's art work. She is truly inspirational. Blessings!

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  27. Mimi is a great artist, I admire her from that I started to visit PPF, happy summer to all.

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  28. Hi everyone. This is my first time joining the party, and I know I am going to have loadsa fun. Thanks for the interesting interview too.

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  29. these are incredible--- so much raw emotion captured. I'm not surprised that your portrait of obama was so well received. how exciting to be featured in NY Times!

    I loved reading about your retirement party... what a fabulous idea-- and a great way for your co-workers to hold on to you even after retirement. I'm anxious to see more of your art now that you will have so much more time on your hands! enjoy your retirement!

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  30. Wow, what an amazing artist. Mimi has done some wonderful pieces. Congratulations on the Sunday New York Times, that is quite an accomplishment.

    Great Interview!

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  31. Gorgeous portraits! Painting people and dogs was how I started out--I loved the challenge of trying to capture quirks and personality. This kind of work takes so much discipline--great job, Mimi!

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  32. There is such feeling in these portraits, beautiful work!

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  33. So lovely! You can see how much she loves painting portraits. It shows in the faces of the subjects!

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  34. Love the paintings!! . SO much life and detail in them. My day has been frustrating and to top it off I linked the wrong blog on my first attempt to join today :0( The second entry is the correct one.

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  35. This is my first week of participating, and I am enjoying visiting everyone's blog to see their art.Have a fab week everyone, from a rainy rainy London.

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  36. Happy Hollidays! and thank you Kristin and Eva ;)

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  37. What a great retirement party you had, Mimi!

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  38. Beautiful portrait work - congrats on retiring...now you'll have so much more time to create beauty to share!

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  39. Beautiful inspiration and watercolors! It's hot and humid here in NJ -- nice to be inside where it's cool, visiting other blogs!

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  40. Beautiful watercolors! Oh, and shameless plug, I hope this is ok, eek... I have a Give-away, please join! xo

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  41. My entry for this week - didn't get much painting done - but did do a watercolored pear (done with Twinks and Inktense pencils) for Artist's Play Room challenge.

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