Was all set to draw and paint cherry blossoms at the Tidal Basin in Washington this past weekend, but the mercurial weather made a hash of those plans.

Nonetheless, I did get a bit of sketching in. Drew this one quite rapidly with a refilled Pilot Varsity pen while we were waiting to have breakfast with our congressman, Rep. Jim Himes, D-Conn. I'm calling it "The Constituents." The private Capitol tour following breakfast was a highlight of our weekend.

As we sat in Himes' office in the Cannon building, we heard our elected officials (on a small television screen) loudly and dramatically debating the merits of shutting down the government.



In between the sudden showers and gawks at stately architecture, I did manage to meet an artist friend in Old Town Alexandria. There was an interesting group of gentlemen sitting on a bench at the docks, but I chose to paint just the guy in the middle, who was relaxing with a cigar. I had to rush because I had to make it back to Arlington for a dinner reservation; in my haste the watercolor got a bit gouache-y and opaque. Touching it up with more paint later didn't really help!