Politically correct

“The Capitol is our castle, our shrine”, says author and historian David McCullough, “and Waddell has snapped it to life.” Smithsonian Magazine. Kiwi Peter Waddell has boldly gone where no artist has painted before: the United States’ Capitol building in Washington. Although the symbolic site attracts millions of visitors a year its interior has never been open to the public. After negotiations with the Museum of the American Architectural Foundation, Waddell was granted permission to paint the interior. His two years spent “in a kind of architectural painter’s heaven” have resulted in an acclaimed series of 20 works, exhibited at Washington’s Octagon Gallery.