Beautiful Landscape: Cherry Blossoms in Washington DC

I took the Metro in and spent Saturday at the Tidal Basin in Washington DC, for the first day of the 98th Annual National Cherry Blossom Festival. Every year I go and it is more beautiful (and a lot colder) than I remember from previous years. I don't spend enough time appreciating the landscape of DC, so this is always a great opportunity to take a look around and appreciate the beauty all around me. I think I walked about 5 miles all over the city. Every time I go I get a renewed sense of pride in being from the DC area. It really is a nice city, but I believe it is under appreciated. While I love to travel and adore all the different landscapes that make up America, I do love home.

Here are some more photographs I shot for inspiration, maybe even for future semi-abstracted landscape paintings:

Dreaming of Old Lyme

Everyone here in the DC area has Spring Fever! Like them, I'm waiting with great anticipation for the cherry blossoms to bloom, but I am also dreaming of the summer in Old Lyme, Connecticut. During a meeting I was doodling some of my favorite scenes that I have committed to memory:

Current Paintings in Progress

I'm coming back on my hiatus from my first year of teaching art, and have several works in progress. Though I am busy as ever, I am trying to get on a regular painting and posting schedule again. Here is a glimpse of what I am working on now: