Leading To Lincoln

This lovely view of the Arlington Memorial Bridge leading from Virginia into the Nation’s Capital and the glorious Greek Doric-style Lincoln Memorial is often called the Ceremonial Entrance to our beautiful city.

The Lincoln Memorial itself has been the scene of hundreds of thousands of visits both personal and public, vandalism (as recent as 2013), and great historic events such as Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream” speech in 1963.

In May of 2015, two lanes of the beautiful Memorial bridge, which was opened in 1932, were closed indefinitely due to corrosion dangers. Though you can’t see it here, the traffic problems due to the closings have been legendary, in a city where traffic is always a topic of lively conversation.

Speaking of traffic, I’ll share a little secret.

The original photographic image on which this digital painting is based was captured with the Nikon D7000 and the 24-70mm Nikkor lens … from the passenger seat of my husband’s Jeep … traveling at approximately 50 mph. Gotta love that lens!! Also gotta love Photoshop CS6 and Corel Painter 2015 and the Wacom tablet, as well as brushes from Karen Burns with which I completely hand painted this image, looking to create texture and swirly hints of impressionism … and a lovely textural overlay from Cheryl Tarrant’s beautiful Distressed Textures and another from Karen Burns.