Dennis Morton

Artist's Statement

Dennis Morton’s initial work in New England was as a portrait artist. He began his formal training as an apprentice under Richard Whitney in 1973. He worked on portraits of the Secretary of the Navy, James Webb, Cardinal Medeiros and other high-profile portraits. In 1988, Morton was honored by Governor John Sununu at the New Hampshire State House where twenty-five of his paintings were exhibited for two weeks.

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Moving to Hawaii in 1991, he continued to receive commissions in portrait painting. He painted portraits of three circuit judges, Father Damien for the Catholic Church in Molokay, William Waddell, the last Buffalo Soldier, John Lydgate and family in Kauai, and Father Mackey of Chaminade. He was also fortunate to paint Glen Campbell and family.

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In 2012, he was commissioned to paint Patty Hastie, George Clooney’s wife in the movie “The Descendants”. The portrait of Patty ended up on the cutting room floor. The director, Alex Payne, did a follow-up entitled “Real Descendants” in which he interviewed John Morgan, the head of Káááwa’ Valley along with others about the Hawaiian Alli and merging with wealthy foreigners. Alex sent Cammy Spenser from Fox in Los Angeles to John Morgan’s office where she was the painting of Púu Ohulehule. She decided to show the painting morphing into reality to start her documentary.

 

Dennis has sold paintings to Richard Chamberlain, John Travolta and Glen Campbell. Some of his landscapes have been sold to wealthy clients on Óahu and have been in the background of at least six episodes of Hawaii Five O. In the mid-90s, he began aggressively pursuing his interest and talents in landscape painting. Many of his pieces reflect the area of Windward Óahu and Kauai. Thru the years he moved back and forth from New England and Hawaii, painting many studies and paintings in Plein Aire. He refers to his style as visual impressionism, which can be explained in Richard Whitney’s book “Painting the Visual Impression” whereby it is a combination of classical realism and impressionist color notes.

 

Dennis is now painting Florida landscapes and is continuing to paint portraits & landscapes.

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He now resides in Fort Myers and is teaching art classes at The Cape Coral Art League and private classes.

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For more information on him, you may visit his website at https://www.dennismortonhawaii.com/home.html or e-mail him at imaginegallery@together.net.