Paintings of the United States Capitol
As part of a series of watercolor paintings I’ve been working on of local landscapes, I decided to do a few paintings of the United States Capitol. The Capitol is not super local to me, but it’s not far away since I live in Northern Virginia. And the building is iconic and beautiful so it’s great for painting.
For this first painting, I decided to paint a view of the front of the Capitol. Side note: apparently both sides are referred to as the front, which is not helpful. From this vantage point, the Ulysses S. Grant Memorial stands prominently in front of the Capitol.
For this painting, I started with an ink sketch using a fountain pen with waterproof ink. Then I put in the watercolor. Being mostly a white building, the Capitol does not have much color but the shape of the building is brought to form through shadows painted with various shades of mixed greys.
The white of the building is contrasted against a bright blue sky and green grounds. I wanted the sky to look bright and clear, so I used a paper towel to create fluffy white clouds in the blue sky.
For my second painting of the Capitol, I wanted to have a more dramatic sky in darker shades of blue, with long flowing clouds. The view of the Capitol is the same as in the first painting, but unobstructed. Again the shape of the white building is formed by the shadows.
In my third painting of the Capitol, I decided to paint the Capitol from the other side, showing the road running up to it. For this painting, I imagined the trees lining the street in bold fall colors. Normally there would be many cars parked alongside the road and plenty of traffic, but I took some artistic license and keep the focus on the Capitol and trees. I like the stark whiteness of the building up against the rich colors of the trees and sky.
Learn more about the other landscape paintings in this collection: