Peter Waddell is a New Zealand native who moved to the United States in 1995. Waddell attended the University of Canterbury in Christchurch and studied fine arts. Waddell began his career in Auckland painting brightly colored figurative works while teaching at a local art college.

Waddell spent two and a half years creating twenty historically accurate pictures of the United States Capitol from 1812-1875. His work exhibited at the American Architectural Foundation's Octagon Museum in Washington in 2002. The paintings drew praise from historians and art critics. Historian David McCullough stated Waddell's fanciful painting are more historically accurate than photographs from the period.

Waddell is the artist in residence at Tu...