Paul Mount and June Miles interviewed by Peter Davies

Geoffrey Robinson

This film is the seventh of nine chapters of 'St Ives Revisited', viewable on www.geoffreyrobinson.com. Other chapters be shown on artcornwall.org in coming months.

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Paul Mount studied at the Royal College of Art. From 1948 to 1955 he lectured at Winchester College of Art and then took up a post as Director of the Art Department at YABA Institute of Technology in Lagos, Nigeria from 1955 to 1961. He then spent a year between 1961 and 1962 as a design consultant in Lagos. From 1962 he has worked as a freelance sculptor using mainly cast iron, stainless steel and bronze.

A love of music and dance, time spent in West Africa and a passion for Romanesque art are all major influences on his sculpture. His kinetic and interlocking works exhibit a high degree of ingenuity and he has an instinctive feeling for his materials. He has worked closely with architects, producing integral sculpture as part of buildings all over the world, from Chase Manhattan Bank in Lagos to a supermarket in Falmouth. Other commissions include the Spirit of Bristol, in St. James's Square Bristol; the British Steel Corporation, London and the Cabinet Offices, Accra, Ghana.

His work has been shown in Spain, Germany, Switzerland and the U.S.A, as well as numerous galleries and sculpture parks in the U.K., including Marlborough Fine Art and the New Art Centre, Roche Court. He is based in St.Just-in-Penwith where he lives with his wife, the artist June Miles.

June Miles studied at The Slade from 1941 to 1943 (and drew maps during the war in an Admiralty drawing office) under Randolphe Schwabe followed by two more years at Art School in Bristol at the then West of England College of Art.

She began teaching at the West of England College in 1966, where she taught evening class at the Queens Road site in the Illustration Department. She remained as a member of the Faculty staff until 1976. In 1968 she was a medallist in the Women’s International Exhibition in Paris. She is a member of the Royal West of England Academy, the Newlyn Society of Artists and the Penwith Society of Artists.

June Miles has participated in several group and solo shows which include venues such as the Royal Academy, the London Group, the Medici Gallery and the David Messum Galleries in London, Beaux Arts and the Adam Gallery in Bath as well as numerous galleries in Cornwall where she now lives. Her work is included in several permanent collections including Plymouth City Art Gallery, the Royal West of England Academy and the Bristol City Art Gallery.