Walter Wesley ‘Wes’ Porter

Age 91, Rileyville, Va.

Walter Wesley “Wes” Porter, 91, passed away on Sunday morning, July 26, 2026, at his home overlooking the Shenandoah River in Rileyville. 

He is survived by his wife and partner of 40 years, Eileen “Little” Brennan-Porter; his children, Browning Wesley Porter and Rebecca Luise Porter; his grandchildren, Shenandoah Claire Porter and Alden Wesley Porter, Bek Juanita Rose and William Wesley Rose; and his nieces, Lisa Anne Porter and Halley Porter McIlwain. He was preceded in death by their father, his brother, Hubert Owen Porter. He has many more nieces and nephews and namesakes, too numerous to mention.

Wes was born in Miami, Florida on August 11, 1934, to a Georgia Tech engineer and a traditional Kentucky housewife. He, however, was graced with a creative and free spirit.

In the first 30 years of his life, he worked at construction jobs, designed and built tournament fly casting rods (and won 1st place in a national casting competition), built and repaired stringed instruments, painted portraits and restored picture frames for a living. His fondest dream as a boy was to be a writer, but with his eye for design and his artistic abilities he was naturally drawn to painting. His main goal at this time was to be a fine artist. He had no formal education in art. He was for the most part self-taught.

In the next 30 plus years of his life, he went to work in a small sign company to help out a fishing friend, decided he liked it and stayed, buying into the shop as a partner. He bought some land on Bull Run Creek in Catharpin, VA, and started a family, a boy and a girl, with his first wife, Memory.

At the end of 5 years he sold his share of the sign company, said he was retired, and began painting full time. His art career went well from the start, and with money from the sale of the shop and the occasional sale of a painting, they were able to live a simple, off the grid life. He exhibited in numerous arts festivals, group shows and juried competitions in Virginia and on the east coast. The children and he thrived, but in 1974 his wife left the home to begin a career of her own. With no one left to help with the house and children, the paintings suffered.

He began painting signs again as a cottage industry to be at home for the children. Over the next 15 years he built up the business, raised the children and painted whenever he had the time.

By 1989, the sign company had grown from a one-man operation to one of the largest graphics companies in the Metropolitan Washington area, with over 50 employees and covering all aspects of commercial art. It provided him with a good living, and he enjoyed traveling to storied fly fishing destinations~ legendary western rivers, Chile, and Alaska, where he and Little fly fished for salmon, and for Smallmouth on Virginia’s historic Shenandoah River.

The success of his business allowed Wes to once again return to his goal of producing fine art. He designed and built a studio home in the Shenandoah Valley with his second wife, Little, and Wes seriously took up painting again while Little continued to help manage the graphics business. In 1992, Wes studied with prominent New York artist and writer Burton Silverman in his Manhattan studio, and Burt became an important artistic influence. Wes became a major collector of Silverman’s work over the years and they remained close friends. He was the subject of Burt’s instructional video “My Friend Wes.”

In 1998, the Northern Virginia Fine Arts Association hosted a one-man show of his work at the Athenaeum in Old Town Alexandria, which traveled to the Artists Museum in Washington, D.C. Then in 2000 the Twentieth Century Gallery in Williamsburg hosted another one-man show of his paintings. In 2003, the Center for the Arts Caton Merchant Gallery in Manassas hosted “Art as Meditation, a Retrospective.”

He became an inspiration and an example to his two children, who also grew to excel in the field of art themselves. His son became a published author, and branding and graphics director for a Wall Street investment firm, while his daughter is the Founder and CEO of her own highly successful West Palm Beach graphics business.

Wes helped to found the Loudoun Academy for the Arts in Leesburg, the Manassas Art Guild in Manassas, and the Charlottesville Writing Center in Charlottesville. He was a former member of the Advisory Board for the Corcoran/Washington Project for the Arts, and a board member of the Center for the Arts in Manassas, VA. 

Then in 2004, Wes and Little bought two historic buildings on Main Street in Luray, and over the next year restored them both with the help of talented local craftspeople, who became the honorary “artisans,” that helped to create the Artisans Grill and Arts and Artisans Fine Art Gallery. Artisans Grill served lunch and dinner for the local community and summer visitors alike, with good food and entertainment for the next 10 years. One year Artisans Grill even won the award for Best Burger in Virginia by Virginia Living Magazine. Through all of his varied endeavors, Wes had a way of encouraging and empowering people with his warm, friendly style of leadership. 

In 2006, Wes was the featured artist in the national fine art publication “The Artist’s Magazine.” The article included a demonstration of his methods and techniques, as well as a discussion on his philosophy of painting, and several good examples of his work.

After four surgeries in two years, in 2014 Wes got to painting again, and in 2015 he had another show of his paintings in the Gallery, titled “New Works.” He produced 20 new paintings for sale, and sold a dozen of them. The Gallery is still in business, with a new talent, Gary GM Grant, arriving on the scene, to breathe new life into the gallery space and into the community.

And yet Wes never knew just how many peoples’ lives he touched with his spirit and with his art, changing their lives for the better, just by being himself.

A gathering of Family and Friends will be planned for a later date.

Arrangements are being handled by the Bradley Funeral Home in Luray, Va.