This is one of the boldface names of Cuban landscape painting. As an icon of the genre and a reference for both the finest and youngest artists, this painter comes from Pinar del Rio, the province where he has fostered what some people call the regional school of landscape and of which this artist is its undisputed master and founder.

Mario owns up that the history of the land he was born in (1942), teeming with breathtaking scenery and nature, is the reason of his many inspirations, motifs he has dug out through the multitude of techniques he has worked with: engraving, pencil and wash drawing, ripping, collage… The step that followed, after drawings on board, was rural landscape on canvas (acrylic). Yet unlike other landscape painters who are more inclined to depicting the colorful bright of light over the countryside, Garcia’s paintings and drawings lean to ocher colors and sienna, thus giving his artworks a touch of his own and highhandedly underscoring his mastery in the use of lights and shadows. Urban painting is just another of the artist’s strongholds. By using the same techniques of his landscape paintings, he works on the oldest and most rundown areas of our cities, recreating the texture of ancient walls like full-detailed portraits, like those well-known windows that serve as makeshift stages for small clowns or puppets that have made us meditate, laugh or even cry. Mario is a member of Cuba’s National League of Writers and Artists (UNEAC), Drawing and Painting professor and has a Degree in History and Social Sciences. His vast professional career that spans for 38 years includes teaching tenures at the School of Fine Arts and the Pinar del Rio Pedagogical Institute. He boasts a baker’s dozen national prizes and two out of Spain. He’s taken part in over a hundred collective exhibitions in Cuba, Chile, Costa Rica, Panama, Mexico, Trinidad & Tobago, Canada, the U.S., Spain, Germany, France, Italy, Malaysia, Lebanon and Norway.

Artist’s website: www.mgportela.cult.cu