I paint still lives with oil on linen. In my paintings, objects are presented the size that they actually are. My process involves sitting for hours, starting at the objects that I paint. This obsessive looking in integral to to the finished paintings. Under this gaze, mundane objects become take on complex meanings.
“Representing metaphors of female experience in her sweetly creepy still-lives, Portia Munson reveals something often unpleasant lurking beneath pretty surfaces. In each of her small canvases a familiar object is found as if on a kitchen table late at night. Caught isolated in the dreamlike light and painted with the penetrating clarity of a child’s gaze, a perverse humor permeates this surreal world. There is a dark, sensuous weight given equally to sex toys, pet toys and kid toys; things that are cute become ominous, the banal is sexualized, the appealing made repellent.”
“Girl,” Bust, Spring 2000
"Caught," 2020, oil on linen, 14 3/4 x 19 inches
"Mermaid Dish with Potatoes," 2005, oil on linen, 18 x 20 inches
"Perfume," 2016, oil on linen, 9 x 9 inches
"Potpourri," 1996, oil on linen, 16 1/4 x 18 1/4 inches
"Pink Gloves," 2017, oil on linen, 16 x 13 inches
"Purse," 2017, oil on linen, 14 x 13 inches
"Bound Paperweight," 2021, oil on linen, 14 1/2 x 17 1/2 inches
"Bound Hands," 2019, oil on linen, 10 1/4 x 11 1/2 inches
"Night Light," 2019, oil on linen
"Wonder," 1998, oil on linen, 18 x 20 inches
"Man Alone," 2000, oil on linen, 16 x 16 inches
"Doll," 2001, oil on linen, 13 x 14 inches
"Plastic Skull," 2007, oil on linen, 15 x 16 inches
"Dolphin Hairclip Under Glass," 1992, oil on linen, 8 x 8 inches
"Out of the Blue," 2000, oil on linen, 12 x 11 inches
"Bunny Ears," oil on linen, 9 x 11 inches
"Swell," 1997, oil on linen, 14 x 15 inches
"Just Out of the Box," 2001, oil on linen, 17 1/4 x 20 1/4 inches
"Pink Doughnuts," 1997, oil on linen, 14 x 16 inches
"Curly Wig," 2022, watercolor and gouache on Arches paper, 16 x 12 ins.
"Lip Ash Tray," watercolor and gouache on Arches paper
"Pink Underwear #1," 2019, watercolor and gouache on Arches paper , 9 x 12 1/4 ins.
"Pink Bow Purse," watercolor and gouache on Arches paper , 8 x 10 ins.
"Shot Glass & Ballerina," watercolor and gouache on Arches paper
"S&M Pink Lips," watercolor and gouache on Arches paper , 8 x 10 ins.
"Garterbelt," 2022, watercolor and gouache on Arches Paper, 12 x 16 ins.
"Sports Bra," watercolor and gouache on Arches paper
"Pin Cushion," watercolor and gouache on Arches paper , 12 x 9 ins.
"Double Smiles," watercolor and gouache on Arches paper , 12 x 16 ins.
"Extension," 2022, watercolor and gouache on Arches paper
"Pink Perfume," 2022, watercolor and gouache on Arches paper , 12 x 9 ins.
"Her Body"
"Pink Bra #2," 2020, watercolor and gouache on Arches paper, 10 x 14 ins.
"Pink Underwear #8," 2021, watercolor and gouache on Arches paper, 9 x 12 ins.
"Pink Bra #5," 2021, watercolor and gouache on Arches paper, 10 x 14 ins.
"Potpourri Jar," 2021, watercolor and gouache on Arches paper, 7 7/8 x 7 7/8 ins.
"Pink Plaid Purse," 2021, watercolor and gouache on Arches paper, 7 7/8 x 7 7/8 ins.
"Pink Underwear #9," 2021, watercolor and gouache on Arches paper, 10 x 14 ins.
"Pink Bra #4," 2021, watercolor and gouache on Arches paper, 10 x 14 ins.
"Pink Underwear #4," watercolor and gouache on Arches paper
"Pink Vase," 2021, watercolor and gouache on Arches paper, 12 x 9 ins.
"Perfume Lips," 2021, watercolor and gouache on Arches paper, 8 x 10 ins.
"Pink Purse Beaded," 2021, watercolor and gouache on Arches paper, 9 x 12 ins.
Her Body is an ongoing series of watercolor and gouache paintings on Arches paper, made up of small painted still-life meditations of individual objects found within my pink installations (“today will be AWESOME” and “Pink Project: Bedroom”), together these paintings of pink objects suggest a women’s body. These paintings speak to my genuine fascination with the objects I collect and my desire to discover and record their messages. The paintings together sexualize parts of women’s bodies through the objects they are sold, despite the absence of a physical body. The feminine-marketed objects represented in this series both bring pleasure to women and affirm femininity, while also being sold under a male-centered society that reinforces and instructs gender roles.
These paintings are based on mundane objects that together suggest a woman’s body or body parts. Taken together, the works which make up Her Body, act as a living archive documenting the ways women’s lives and bodies are controlled and manipulated.