painter, was born in Balmain, Sydney on 28 January 1898. She attended the Royal Art Society School under Dattilo Rubbo in 1913-14 before commencing studies at Blackfriars Teachers College (1915-19). While studying to be a teacher she took up a scholarship at Julian Ashton 's Sydney Art School then managed to divide her time between her day studies and her art training at night. At Ashton’s she was friendly with Grace Crowley and with fellow students and later Perth co-exhibitors, Muriel Southern and Florence Hall. She exhibited with various groups including the NSW Society of Artists; in 1925 she held a joint exhibition with Rah Fizelle at Anthony Horderns Gallery.
In 1921-25 Portia Bennett taught at the Teachers College then married William James-Wallace and moved to Queensland. She did little art until 1932 when, together with her family, she moved to Perth. In 1933 she joined up with Southern, Hall and Margaret Johnson to hold an exhibition in the Newspaper House Gallery. Her work was included in the 1934 Women Artists of Australia exhibition, held in the Education Department Gallery, Sydney. During the 1930s and 1940s Bennett completed some of her most powerful work, strong architectural studies of the streets and landmarks around Perth. She was fascinated by the city and drawn to modern, recently constructed buildings; her watercolours depict a fashionable and contemporary Perth.
She won the Claude Hotchin Watercolour Prize in 1952 and held solo exhibitions in 1953 and 1973. In 1986 the University of WA honoured her with a retrospective exhibition at the Undercroft Gallery. Her work was included in Western Australian Art and Artists 1900-1950 (AGWA 1978) and Beyond the Image: Western Australian Women Artists 1920-1960 (UWA 1990), the latter held after she died in Perth on 1 May 1989, aged 91.
- Writers:
- Gooding, Janda
- Date written:
- 1995
- Last updated:
- 1992
