Los Cabos Magazine 2001

A few days into the New Year of 1994, Dennis Wentworth Porter drove into San Jose del Cabo, fresh from a sell-out show at his mountain top studio in Jerome, near Sedona, Arizona. He intended to hang out, paint for a month or two and move on. He's still here. The pioneer artist of what's now the hot end of town for galleries, boutiques and restaurants in San Jose's historic district, Porter worked out of his Costa Azul studio for several years before finding a turn of the century building and setting up his signature gallery downtown. The emphasis was on creating a separate space for each canvas and as a result his gallery has a museum quality, with no more than a dozen large format oils and several jewel-toned pastels on the walls at any given time. Soft jazz and optimum lighting complement his powerful, impressionistic work making #20 Alvaro Obregon a hot stop on many collectors' itineraries.

A painter who enjoys complicated compositions and uses brushstrokes and pigments as design elements, Porter's art is also about the way light strikes life on canvas. "For me, art is more about how I feel about the light and subjects of my paintings than the subjects themselves. If the light's not right, it doesn't attract my attention." Painting primarily representational subjects but also known for his abstract compositions, Porter uses a complex palette. Like the early Impressionists, he's fascinated by the physics of color theory.He travels to the mainland frequently, exploring new ground on each journey, with each series a distinctive visual narrative of the many faces of Mexico. Every fall Porter beats the heat and hits the road. These half dozen highly coveted pieces may feature the Colorado Rockies or Cezanne's Provence. Based in Los Cabos without stateside gallery representation doesn't faze Porter, who says "The hospitality of the people here has made it possible to live a very full life and meet art lovers from all over the planet. And collectors know where to find me."

A painter's painter, Porter taught art for ten years after graduating from the Santa Barbara Art Institute at Brooks in 1974. PBS featured him in two productions in the early eighties and over the past twenty five years he's had studios from Alaska to Italy, hung in heavyweight galleries and seen his work go into collections all over the world. As to all of that he says, "When you look at my art you shouldn't care what I've done or where I've been, only where I'm at right now and if it grabs you or not."